The Gem of Thundera
by Thundercatgirl2
Summary: Kira, the daughter of Tygra and Cheetara '80's version , after having to leave the planet of Thundera ten years ago due to Vexlox. Being transported to Third Earth by her protector Tafari the cheetah God. But the spell that turned her into a human so she could live on Earth, didn't break.Follow along with her as she tries to break the spell and adventure with the Thundercats.
1. Chapter 1 The Glowing Gem

The Gem of Thundera

Chapter 1 The Glowing Gem

Somewhere in the small town of Pulaski, Tennessee… The loud booming of bass drums and a snare drum can be heard from the football field. Six people were on the field, four girls and two guys. "Okay guys, practice is over, just put your drums on the trailer," said CJ after the drums stopped playing. "Yeah!" yelled Kira, taking off her drum and harness.

Kira has a tall, lean, athletic body. She has waist-length blonde hair with orange at the tips, and the front shorter section of hair has been brought forward, creating a bangs effect around her somewhat long face. (A/N: the bangs look just like Cheetara's from the 2011 series.) She also has pale red eyes. She was wearing a white tank top which fit tight around her C-cup chest, and a pair of old blue jeans.

"Hey Jackson, race you to the band room?" asked Kira. Jackson looked at her. "Sure, but we all know no one can beat you in a race. You're the fastest person alive besides your cousin, Chee." said Jackson. They both got in running position. "On 3," said Kira.

"1...2…3!"

Then they were off. All of the other drum players saw was Jackson and a blur of Kira far ahead of him. Kira turned around and started to run backwards. "Come on Jackson! I'm not even running as fast I can!" Yelled Kira. Jackson just looked at her in disbelief. He was already sweating like crazy and she hasn't even broken a sweat.

_How does she not even break a sweat when she runs long distances_, thought Jackson. Then she turned back forward and was soon out of sight.

Kira was sitting on a low hanging branch when Jackson got there a few minutes later. "Took you long enough!" said the relaxed blonde. She jumped off the branch and walked over to Jackson. "You okay?" she asked the tired boy. "I just don't know how you do it," he said. "Do what?" replied Kira. "Run so fast and not even break a sweat or get tired from the running," said Jackson. "I'm used to it." answered the blonde.

A car horn honked.

Kira turned and saw her cousins, Ty and Chee. "Looks like Jackson raced Kira again," said Ty. Ty was a tall, muscular man. He is very handsome and a ladies' man. He has auburn colored eyes and orange hair. Chee has blonde hair and pale red eyes like Kira. He is tall, lean and built for speed. Both of them are in their early twenties.

"Well, I gotta go. Bye Heather, Haley, big CJ, CJ, and Jackson." said Kira, waving at her friends. "Bye Kira," they all said, waving their friend bye. She jumped in their black convertible behind Chee. Then they drove off.

The radio was playing in the background. "So how was practice?" asked Chee. "The same as always," replied Kira from the back seat. "Nothing unusual happened, did it?" commented Ty. "No, why?" asked Kira. Ty and Chee shared a look that two people with a big secret would have on their faces. "What's going on?" asked Kira with worry in her voice.

_Riinngg! _

Chee answered his phone. " …. Yeah she's with us…. Yes we know where to take her… No, no one is following us….Okay bye." Chee hung up the phone. "What?" said Kira. "Ty, Chee tell me what's going on?" she demanded. "He found us." Said Ty, driving a little faster. The only person who has been after them for a long time has found them. _Vexlox!_ Kira started to shake with fear. Chee saw her start to shake.

_It seems everything we did to stop him from finding us only slowed him down for ten years_. _We have no more options_. thought Chee. Kira's bracelet her mother gave her before the left Thundera began to glow.

The red glow got brighter.

"_Kira." _said Tafari.

Kira looked at her bracelet. Tafari is the cheetah God who was asked by Kira's mother to protect her when they left Thundera. The bracelet's ruby is a portal to the world where Tafari lives. Tafari uses the ruby to travel to where Kira's at to protect her. Only Tafari can use the ruby to travel between worlds. _"He is coming Kira." _ _"What do we do, Tafari?" _ Tafari said nothing. The red glow got brighter and brighter. Then they all were blinded by the flash of light.

_BOOM! _

AAAAHHHH!

Then everything was black.

Kira opened her eyes only to be blinded another bright light. She got up and looked around and she realized Ty and Chee were nowhere in sight. Beside her laid a pendent that was a tiger head with jade eyes. . _'This is Ty's pendent!' Kira _thought placing the necklace around her neck. Then she looked ahead of her to see a city surrounded by a huge wall. She walked up to the city and saw that the guards had claws on their hands and fangs in their mouths. They also were covered in fur and had cat-like ears. _Thundercats! But they don't look like the Thundercats back home. _ Thought Kira. Then the guards pointed their spears at her, yelled something and ran towards her.

"Who are you?" "What are you?" "My name is Kira and-" She was stopped by a growling noise. The guards looked at her right wrist. The ruby was glowing again but not as bright as before. _"What's up with Tafari, their Thundercats like me?"_ Wondered Kira. One of the guards tried to grab her wrist to get a better look at it and a red beam shot out and threw him back. "Grab her!" ordered one of the guards. They tried to grab her but she dodged them and ran as fast as she could.

"Stop her!"

Kira ran into a crowd and the guards followed her. _The city is full of Thundercats! _realized Kira, looking around at everyone as she ran from the guards. Then she saw a small opening and ran in it. The guards ran past her. "Where did she go?" asked one of the soldiers.

"This way!" yelled another then they all followed him.

"Finally, lost them," she looked around and saw that the streets were rundown and dirty. "Must have ran in the bad part of town," she said, pulling her hood closer to her. Kira walked on through the crowd.

_Back in the slums…_

_Gotta find a way out of here,_ Kira thought to herself.

"She's over there!" shouted a voice. "You heard him! This way!" Shouted another one.

"Whiskers…"said Kira under her breath. Kira turned and ran down the street. Then guards came from the way. "Whiskers!" She turned to go the other way but there were even more guards that way. She looked for a way out. Then she saw an alley full of crates she could use as stairs. Kira ran towards it, the guards following her. She jumped up on the crates, as she got on the sixth crate it broke and Kira fell off the crates on her side.

"Ow..." she groaned as hands grabbed her arms and pulled her to her feet and dragged her away. _"Don't fight back anymore, save your strength for when you really need it."_ Said Tafari.


	2. Chapter 2 The Gem of Thundera

Chapter 2 The Gem of Thundera

Kira looked up at the palace as the guards dragged her inside of it. It looked like a giant panther lying on its belly; the arms were walls that surrounded the path to the front doors of the palace. They dragged her to the throne room and before four thrones. In the head throne was a large, big muscled lion ThunderCat with a bushy red mane, a scar across his nose, all dressed in royal armor and with a crown on his head. Beside him were two smaller thrones. In one sat a young tiger, his hair flipped out at the sides into two tips. In the other small throne sat a lion ThunderCat who was slightly younger than the tiger, he had the same red mane as the large one but not as bushy and wasn't as muscular. His blue eyes were full of curiosity as soon as he saw Kira. Beside him was an old cat with a long white beard. He was dressed in robes that looked similar to armor but was more elegant than the large cat.

The guards then shoved her on her knees in front of the king. "This is her sir," said one of the guards, " and this is the strange bracelet," showing the king her bracelet. The bracelet started to glow a little bit.

The king stood from his seat and walked towards Kira, staring at her bracelet. "Tell us why you have a gem that has the same powers as the Sword of Omens." said the tiger from his seat.

"That's none of your business. " Said Kira glaring at the tiger. "And why is it not any of our business?" said the king.

"Because it has nothing to do with you." Said Kira. The tiger growled. Then there was a flash of red, when the flash was gone there stood a giant cheetah. (Like Moro the wolf god in Princess Mononoke.) The cheetah had ruby eyes and had a ruby on her chest. The guards stepped back away from Kira and everyone who was sitting stood up. "Be calm Kira, I will handle this." Said the giant cheetah. "I am Tafari, the cheetah God, and this is Kira. I brought her here to get away from someone who has been after her for the past twelve years. We are not here to cause any problems."

"Tafari the cheetah God, it is great honors to finally meet you face to face." said the old cat standing from his throne, walking over to Tafari. "Yes it is for me as well Jaga." said Tafari.

"Jaga, you two know each other?" asked Claudus. "We have talked many times before." said Jaga. "Yes we have, by the way Jaga, we still have to discuss a few things." reminded Tafari. "Yes I know," he turned towards Kira, "we'll make room for you to stay."

"Stay? But I just want to go home." Kira said. "And we will go home Kira, but we both know we can't right now. Not till Vexlox is gone for good." Tafari said, turning to Claudus, "I'm sorry but we need to stay for a little while. I hope it is okay with you since you are the king." Claudus looked from Tafari to Jaga, who nodded, "Fine you two may stay in the palace." "Very well, Lion-O, Tygra, why don't you show her around the palace while we prepare a room for Kira." said Jaga.

"Sure." Lion-O said, walking away from his throne, smiling at her, "Come with us." Kira followed the two outside. "So, how well can you fight?" Tygra asked her. Kira looked at him, "I'm pretty good at fighting." she replied.

Then they came to a small, empty courtyard, "Here's good," said Tygra pulling out a whip. "So we're gonna fight." asked Kira. "Tygra" Lion-O's tone warned him to be careful. "I just want to see if she can fight as well as she says." said Tygra with a smirk on his face."I can fight as well as I said." growled Kira.

"Then prove it," he added, cracking the whip. 'So he can disappear using a whip too, this is gonna be fun.' thought Kira listening for claws on stone. 'There!' Kira smiled, lifted her leg up and did a roundhouse kick throwing something back. When it hit the ground, Tygra reappeared, looking at her in shock. "How… How did you know where I was?" Tygra asked in surprise.

"Simple, you're not the first person to use a whip to turn invisible in a fight against me. Just because you're invisible doesn't mean you still don't make footsteps in the ground." said Kira.

"Impressive." Tygra said, standing up.

"Thanks."Kira said.

Kira looked around the bedroom."So this is where I'm sleeping?"

"Yeah, my room is right across from here." Lion-O said. "So if you need anything just knock on my door."

"Let me guess your father put me in the room across from yours." Kira said setting her backpack down.

"Yeah he wants me to makes sure you don't hurt anyone." Lion-O said.

"It doesn't matter where I go, I'll always be a freak." muttered Kira looking depressed. Lion-O heard her and looked at her, "What do mean by that?" asked Lion-O.

"I mean ever since the day I was born I have been called a freak. I've always been different." Kira said. "I don't think you are a freak," Lion-O said, trying to comfort the girl, coming over to her and sitting down next to her, "Some people here think I'm a freak."

"Why would you be a freak?" Kira said looking at Lion-O.

"I'm a freak because I have a thing for technology. Everyone says tech is just a myth. But I think it's real." Lion-O said.

"It is real. I should know it's everywhere back home." Kira said to Lion-O.

"Really! You have to tell me about it." Lion-O said excited.

"How about we just talk about each other?" Kira said. "Sure." Lion-O said disappointed that she wouldn't tell him about tech from her home.

"How old are you?"

"Seventeen." Lion-O said, "How old are you?" "Seventeen."Kira said. "Is Tygra you adopted brother? Because you two look nothing alike."

"Yeah he is, we just grew up together."Lion-O said.

"Do you have any brothers or sisters?" Lion-O asked.

"Nope, it's just me, my cousins Ty and Chee, and their dads." Kira replied.

Lion-O looked at her in surprise, "What about your mom and dad?"

"I had to leave them and my home town ten years ago. So did Ty's dad and Chee's dad. When I had to leave my mom and dad asked their brothers to go with me and they had to bring their sons with them." Kira said with a look of sadness on her face.

"I'm sorry," He said, "I didn't know."

"It's okay." she said.

For about two hours, they simply kept asking each other questions about the other's life. Kira learned that Lion-O was a simple man (cat?) who was still considered childish in the eyes of his people. Lion-O learned that Kira wasn't considered 'normal' back home, and when he asked her to elaborate, she didn't, and giving the excuse that he wouldn't understand.

Later they were called to eat dinner.


	3. Chapter 3 Leo the Lion God

Chapter 3 Leo the Lion God

_At the dinner table… _

Kira looked at the table that was full of food. Claudus sat at the head of the table. Tygra sat in the chair on Claudus's left. Lion-O sat across from Tygra and Kira sat beside Lion-O. Jaga sat at the end of the table. Tafari went back to the world of the Gods, to deal with Godly matters. They all ate in silence.

"So, Kira, tell us about your family, if you don't mind." Claudus asked.

Lion-O stopped eating and looked at Kira. "No, I don't mind at all." replied Kira, "Well I live with my two cousins Ty and Chee, and their dads." "What about your mother and father? Or do you even have a mother and father." asked Tygra. "Tygra!" said Lion-O, standing up. Then Lion-O felt a hand on his shoulder, he looked to see Kira. "It's okay Lion-O, when I was seven, I had to leave them for a reason I don't like to talk about." Kira said, "Now if you would please excuse me." with that Kira got up and walked through the doors.

Then Lion-O shot a glare at Tygra and went after Kira.

"Lion-O!" yelled his father. But Lion-O just kept going. Lion-O ran through the halls looking for her, then he saw her standing in front of a window. "Kira," he whispered, walking over to her. Kira heard someone coming she turned to see Lion-O. She looked back out the window, "Hey Lion-O."

When he got closer he saw tears glittering her face. "Kira." he began but what he was going to say next was lost as Kira wrapped him in an embrace. "Lion-O," she sobbed, "I just miss them so much." He returned the embrace. He let her cry on him, he knew she just needed to let it all out. He whispered comforting words in her ears. Then Kira pulled away from Lion-O, "Thanks, I needed that." "No problem." he replied.

Lion-O walked Kira back to her room. "Night Lion-O." Kira said to the lion.

"Goodnight Kira." He said walking to his room, shutting the door.

Kira went under the covers and went to sleep.

_Kira looked around, she was standing in darkness. "Hello Kira, long time no see." Said a voice that haunted Kira ever since she was five. Kira turned shakily to the owner of the voice. "Vexlox." she said shakily. Kira had only seen him once and yet his face haunts her. _

_He wears a mask to cover his face; the mask looks like burned face of some kind of creature. Through his mask you can see his blood red snake like eyes. He wears a black hooded cloak that goes down to his ankles. His right hand is gone and in its place is a hand made of a black crystal, the fingers of what looked like large knife like threading needles. His left hand has razor sharp claws on it. He had on under his cloak silver armor cover in the blood of the victims he had killed over the years._

"_Go-Go away." Kira said her voice full of fear. Vexlox walked closer to her. "Just hold still, I'll make as painful as possible." he said. "Stay-Stay away from me!" she yelled._

"_**Kira!"**__ called a voice in the distance, but she just thought it was her imagination._

"_Leave me alone!" she yelled at the creature that kept coming closer. _

"_**Kira!"**__ Called the strange voice, __**"Kira, wake up!"**_

Kira jolted awake in a cold sweat, looking around for Vexlox."Kira," She looked over to see Lion-O's blue eyes looking back at her. "Are you okay?"

"I-I don't know." She said, she took in a deep breath to calm herself and leaned back against the pillows on the bed. "You looked like you were having a nightmare." Lion-O said, sitting down next to her on her bed.

"I was, thanks for waking me." Kira said. "No problem." Lion-O said, "What was your nightmare about?" Kira thought back to her nightmare and began to shake. "I'd rather not talk about it…" She said, looking away. Lion-O nodded. "What time is it?" Kira asked looking outside.

"About nine in the morning." Lion-O said

"Now, do you want some breakfast?" asked Lion-O. "Yeah, but first can I change clothes?" Kira asked pointing over to a black backpack with a silver skull on it. "I have a set of clothes in it."

"Oh, sure. I'll be outside the door." with that Lion-O turned and walked out the door, closing it behind him.

Kira opened her backpack and took out the clothes and putted them on.

Lion-O heard the door open and turned to see Kira, and his jaw dropped the moment he saw her. Kira was wearing an orange one sleeved tunic that exposes her cleavage and midriff. The one sleeve, on her left arm, is short and blue. Also on her left arm is an arm shield that held a bo-staff on it. (The same thing that is on '80's version Cheetara's left arm.) She was also wearing blue shorts that came to her mid-thigh with a belt that had a red crystal on it, right beside the crystal was a bolo-whip strapped to her belt. And on her feet were a pair of orange sandals that left the toes exposed.

"Um, Lion-O?" Kira said. Lion-O shook his head to get rid of some thoughts. Kira laughed when she saw that he was blushing. "What are you laughing about?" asked Lion-O noticing her laughing at him. "Oh nothing." _'He is so cute when he blushes.' _thought Kira walking towards the kitchen.

Kira was walking casually around the castle by herself. "Morning, Kira. Did you have a good night's sleep?" Asked Tafari Kira turned to see Tafari in a form she never seen Tafari in before. With Tafari being a god, she can change forms to fit in anywhere, just like all of the other gods can change form. Tafari had transformed into a cheetah ThunderCat, her long spotted blonde hair was in a side pony tail. She was wearing a long, flowing silver gown, with golden bracelets on her wrists. "Morning Tafari, and yes I did." replied Kira.

"That's good. I don't think King Leo would like to see you tired." Tafari said smiling that knowing smile of hers. "Wait, Leo's here!" shouted Kira excitingly. Tafari laughed, "Yes he is. He told me last night he would come to check on you."

"Well, where is he!" asked Kira. "Follow me." said Tafari walking down a hallway.

_In the garden… _

There stood a lion that looked almost exactly like Lion-O, but he had golden eyes and was wearing golden armor and had a gold crown on his head.

"Leo!" The lion turned only to be tackled to the ground by Kira. "Kira! I'm glad to see you to." laughed Leo. Kira got up off of Leo. Leo got up and picked up Kira, spinning her in the air. He putted her down. "So what has been going on with you?" Kira asked Leo. "Nothing really, just taking care of godly matters like always. It's not easy being the King of the Gods you know. I never have time for things I want to do." Leo said smiling at Kira. "But yet you still have plenty of time to come visit me." Kira said looking at Leo.

"That because you are a big part of my duties of being king."Leo said.

"Yes you are Kira. You have always been." Tafari said looking at Leo and Kira.

Then Kira caught up Leo with everything that has happen since the last time Leo visited her. Tafari had to leave to go talk with Jaga.

_One hour later…_

"Well Kira, I wish I could stay longer, but have to go." said the lion god. Kira stuck out her lower lip and pouted. "Do you really have to go?" "Yes I do. But I will try to come later today, okay?" Leo told the pouting girl. "Okay." Kira said after thinking for a while. "Well, I'll be leaving then." With that Leo disappeared in a flash of gold.

"Hey Kira!" yelled Lion-O. "What are you doing out by yourself?" "Oh I wasn't, I was talking to someone, and they just left." Kira said.

"Anyway," He said, he held out a cloak, "I'm going into town to get some tech. So I wanted to know if you would come with me." Kira picked up the cloak, and then looked back at Lion-O. "I thought you guys said technology was a myth?" She said.

"We did, but that doesn't mean you can't go out and find it." Lion-O said, "So, do you want to come with me or not?"

"Yeah I'm coming." she said.

"And when we're done, you can watch my coming-of-age ceremony." Lion-O said, putting on his own cloak and walking away. Kira followed him, with Snarf close behind. "You mean the ceremony where you master the Sword of Omens?"Kira asked.

"Yeah. How did you know that?" Lion-O asked looking at her curiously. "Lucky guess." And with that they both walked out of the castle and into the busy streets of the Thundera.


	4. Chapter 4 Omens: Part 1

Chapter 4 Omens: Part 1

Kira followed Lion-O through the streets of Thundera.

"Relax, Snarf." Lion-O said to him with a laugh, "You think we're gonna get killed every time we come to this part of town."

"Where do you think you're going, mutt?" A rough voice shouted. Kira and Lion-O turned to see a dog getting roughed up by a posse of cats. The dog whimpered, "That's right, pay up or get hurt."

"No, they're not cats, Snarf." Lion-O said, looking at the dog, "But no one should be treated like that."The leader's ear twitched, he turned to look at Kira and Lion-O's hidden forms. "What are you lookin'n at?"

"Whiskers…" Lion-O said under his breath. The posse surrounded them, and Snarf hid behind Lion-O's cloak. "You gotta pay up, too." The big cat man said, "In the slums, everyone's a dog." He held out his hand for Lion-O's money.

"I have a feeling you're the one who's going to pay." Lion-O said, reaching out and grabbing the cat man's hand painfully and throwing him back. The only girl of the group ran at Lion-O with a knife, Kira grabbed her hand and punched her in the face.

The shortest of the group ran at Kira wielding a knife, but before she could react to him. "Don't touch her!" growled a voice, punching him in his face. Someone was in front of Kira, 'That voice, Leo!'

"Leo-"Kira didn't get to finish as the last member of the group yelled a battle cry, running at Lion-O with a sword. Snarf ducked between his feet, weaving in and out of them as he ran, causing him to lose his footing before he even got to him. "Thanks Snarf." said Lion-O, the little creature mewed happily, then gasped. The big cat up and putted Lion-O in a choke hold.

"Now, I'm gonna gut you like a fish!" He threatened, tightening his grip as Lion-O struggled against his gigantic arms. Kira and Leo were about to stop him, when something hit him on the back of his head, making him fall temporarily unconscious and drop Lion-O. Behind Lion-O was a silhouette of a person spinning their staff around before having it go down onto the ground to show that they weren't going to attack anymore.

"Not that I needed it," Lion-O said, adjusting his cloak, "But who can I thank for the assist?" The person stepped into the light. It was a female cheetah cat.

"Cheetara." said the cheetah.

"Hello—" He cleared his throat when his voice cracked, "Hello there."

"I'm sure the king would not be happy to learn that his son was wrestling alley cats." Cheetara said. Lion-O sighed and pulled his hood off, revealing his red mane of hair. The cats he had been fighting earlier saw this and the leader looked at him with wide eyes."He's the _prince?_! Scatter!" His goons ran off, away from them."It's my dirtiest cloak, and it's _still_ a bad disguise." Lion-O sighed with a smile as he adjusted the clip on his cloak. "What's so important you'd risk your life coming down here?" Cheetara asked.

"That depends," Lion-O said with a smirk, "Can you keep a secret?" Cheetara mirrored his smirk and followed him as he pulled up his hood again. "Oh, I didn't get to thank you for helping Kira." Lion-O turned to Leo. "No problem, I'd do anything to protect her." Leo said taking off his hood. Lion-O was shocked to see that the lion looked almost exactly like him, but he had golden eyes.

"You're that lion that was in the garden earlier." Cheetara said looking at Leo. "I knew someone saw me in the garden." Leo said. They all started to walk to the edge of the slums. "Why is it every time I come down to see you, you are in a fight or in trouble." said Leo looking at Kira. "Well I've always have been known to be a trouble maker and to get in a lot of fights." Kira replied.

Lion-O just watched the two of them talking together, _'How do they know each other? Kira said that there was no ThunderCats where she lived.'_

"By the way, does Aria know you're here?" Kira asked Leo looking at him questioned look. "Actually she does, she saw me leave." said Leo rubbing the back of his head. Soon they got to their destination. A dog came out of a hut. "Lion-O!" The old dog said happily when he saw him, "Come in, come in! I have something for you." He went back into his hut. "Jorma here sells certain, hard-to-find… collectables." Lion-O explained to the two cats and human.

"You mean black market items." said Cheetara. "They're more than that." Lion-O said, going inside.

Kira, Cheetara and Leo followed him inside. "What _is_ all this?" Cheetara asked, looking around at everything with wide eyes. Kira looked around and saw all sorts of technology. "It's what's out _there_." Lion-O said, "Beyond Thundera's walls. What the Book of Omens calls technology." Lion-O tossed a robot arm to Cheetara, who easily caught it.

"Doesn't everyone think those stories are just fairy tales?" Cheetara asked, putting the arm down. Jorma went over to something he had covered with a drape and pulled it back. "You think _this_ is a fairy tale?" He asked everyone went over to look at the device; it looked like a metal disk that had a strange indention with a tiny screen covered in vertical lines.

"I think it's probably another fake people like _you_ sell to people like _him_." Cheetara said, pointing to Lion-O, who seemed completely engrossed in the technology before him. "As cubs, we believe the tales about ships that could fly." Lion-O said, "Maybe everyone else outgrew them, but I didn't. I _know_ there's a bigger world out there." He looked over at Cheetara, and smiled sheepishly, "You think I'm crazy, don't you?"

"I think you're… different." Cheetara said. Lion-O smiled at her, and then gasped as they heard a bell ringing throughout the city, announcing the time.

"Oh, I'm _late_…!" He sighed; he pulled some money out of his pocket and tossed it to Jorma, "I'll take it." He pulled up his hood, smiling at Cheetara, "Maybe next time, I can bail you out of trouble." Lion-O said as they dashed out of the hut, heading up the cliff and going as fast as they could to get out of the slums.

The three of them ditched the cloaks at the entrance of the throne room and ran in where they saw King Claudus, Tygra, and Jaga sitting on their thrones and waiting for Lion-O. "Sorry!" Lion-O said hurriedly with a sheepish smile, "Sorry, sorry!" King Claudus looked a little pissed that he had taken so long, but said nothing as he nodded to Jaga. "Let us begin this sacred rite of passage, Jaga." He said, Jaga nodded once and raised his staff.

"Guardians of the crown!" He called, "Bring forth the Sword of Omens!" Kira and Leo saw a group of clerics, one of which she saw to be Cheetara, come in. Cheetara carried the sword, which was covered with a blue silk of some kind, forward and kneeled before the king.

Kira saw Tygra winking at her, and she gave him a crazy look. "Are you _flirting_?"said Kira in a low voice, Tygra waved her away, and she rolled her eyes at him.

"While you will one day wear the crown, Lion-O," Jaga said as he pulled off the blue covering, "Only the Eye of Thundera, the source of our power, knows if there is indeed a king inside of you." Kira looked at the sword and realized that it looked a lot similar to the Sword of Omens back home, but also looked different. "Take the sword, and become one with it." Lion-O reached out and picked the sword. He walked away from the others and practiced swinging with it.

"You hold in your hands what built the ThunderCats Empire." King Claudus said, "But only he who is deemed worthy can harness its awesome power." Lion-O didn't seem to listen as he kept swinging the sword. "Let me show you what it's capable of in the proper hands." Claudus stepped away from his throne and took the sword from Lion-O. Tygra, who held a sword looked at his father as he turned away, then he looked back at Lion-O.

"Uh-oh. Catch!" He threw the other sword at Lion-O and he caught it just as his father turned around and swung the sword at him, small bolts of lightning coming from it. As their swords clashed, Lion-O just barely defending himself against his father's blows, Claudus spoke, "The book told that it was the ThunderCats, our ancestors, who first defeated Mumm-Ra! It was the ThunderCats who brought law and order to a world of warring animals! And it is now the ThunderCats who are strong enough to maintain this fragile peace!" Claudus raised the sword high and brought it down, the force of it causing Lion-O to lose his footing and he fell back, dropping the other sword.

Claudus brought the sword down into the floor, into the middle of the ThunderCats emblem, powerful bolts flying from the blade. Once they had stopped, Lion-O got up and grabbed the hilt of the sword, pulling it out from the floor. He made the same moves his father had, and Kira watched in awe as lightning came from the sword as Lion-O used it.

"That's it!" Claudus encouraged, "Concentrate!" With every swing Lion-O made, more bolts of lightning came from the sword. When Lion-O had finished his display of power, he held up the sword, bringing the hilt closer to his face to use Sight Beyond Sight. The ends of the sword's cross guard curl up slightly around Lion-O's eyes, and the red jewel in the hilt of the blade began to glow, looking like a cat's eye. Lion-O saw two evil red eyes in darkness, and a wrinkled demon's face appearing in the blade of the Sword of Omens.

Lion-O gasped and moved the sword away from his face. "Lion-O, why did you stop?" Claudus asked. Lion-O looked back at his father.

"Um..." Lion-O look around nervously. Suddenly a shadow with a sword came from behind Kira. A growl was heard and the sound of swinging chains. Everyone turned to see a tall slender female panther swinging her golden nun chucks. She had on deep blue armor. Her long black hair was in a side braid with some bangs framing her face. When she stopped swinging her nun chucks, she looked from the body lying at her feet to Leo and Kira.

"Either Vexlox is getting dumber over the years or he is planning something." said the panther. "When is Vexlox not planning anything?" Leo said, now being noticed by Tygra, Claudus and Jaga. "He never does."

"Let me guess Aria sent you didn't she, Sonja?" Leo asked Sonja. "No she didn't. I had a feeling something was going to happen so I came here King Leo. And by the looks of him" she pointed to the man at her feet, "It was a good thing I came." "Thank you Sonja I'm glad you came." Leo thanked the panther.

"I'd do anything for you my king." Sonja said bowing to Leo. "And for you Kira." she said smiling at Kira. Sonja walked over to the man on the floor, picked him up by his collar effortlessly. "I'll take him back for Kishan to get answers out of him." And with that Sonja disappeared in a black flash taking the man with her.

"Well I better go to. There's no telling what Kishan will do to him." said Leo leaving in a gold flash.

Kira then winced in pain and grabbed her left arm and dropped to her knees. Lion-O dropped the sword and ran over to her. He looked at her arm to see a deep cut on her arm.

"Lion-O." He looked up when his father called his name and looked at him when he brought the Sword of Omens forward, "You abandoned the sword." "I-I'm sorry." Lion-O said, "It's just… " Claudus held up his hand. "The sword is ready, Lion-O, but you are not." He said, he took the sword with him as he walked away. Lion-O frowned sadly, seeing that he disappointed his father again. Jaga stood up, keeping his eyes on Lion-O. He noticed this and looked over at him. "I didn't see anything." he said.

"I did not say anything." Jaga replied, he waved his hand and two of his clerics came up to Kira. "Take her to the infirmary."They grabbed Kira and walked her out the doors.

_An hour later…_

A loud horn went off. "What the hell is that?" said Kira rubbing her wrapped arm. "It's the alarm." Lion-O said, he grabbed Kira's hand, "Come on." He dashed off to the lookout point at a high point of the castle, Kira's hand never leaving his as they dashed up to where Claudus, Tygra, and Jaga already were.

Claudus looked through a telescope to see what was coming and saw a huge yellow and dark green stone being moved forward by a huge group of animals. "It can't be!" He said with a laugh as he put the telescope down, "It _can't_ be! At long last!" He turned around and Tygra and Lion-O followed him.

They all walked down to the stables Tygra, Claudus and Lion-O mounted some creatures. They were like horses in height and build, but nothing like them in appearance. They had thick, light blue fur, and a face that reminded her of some kind of rodent. Once Lion-O got on the saddle he held out his hand for Kira.

She was just about to take Lion-O's hand when Jaga came in. "I'm sorry Lion-O but Tafari and I need to talk to her about something important." said Jaga. Then Lion-O joined his father and brother riding through the front gate.

_Back in the palace…_

"Is something wrong?" asked Kira. Jaga said nothing as they walked through the halls. When they got in a large room Kira gasped. There in the middle of the room laid Leo, in his real form a giant lion, blood on his mouth, a large gash in his side. Beside him was a bloody Tafari and Ren the White Tiger God, both in their true forms.

"Leo!" Screamed Kira running over to where Leo laid. Leo looked at Kira. "What-what happened?" asked Kira sobbing as she hugged the lion god. "One of the gods turned traitor and attacked us." Said Ren his blue eyes watching the sobbing girl. "Wh-what. Who?" Kira asked. "Kraven." replied Tafari moving over to Kira.

Kraven was the lizard god. It was no secret that he hated Leo and the other cat gods, but he had never tried to attack one of them. He always thought that a cat as king would be the gods' downfall. "But how did he hurt you all this much?"

"He had help from demons." replied Ren. Leo was trying to comfort Kira as she cried on him.

"Demons?" Kira said. "Yes, gods that have had hatred fill their hearts and that hatred turned them into creatures of evil." Jaga answered Kira question. "If that's the case, then why is Kraven still a god and not a demon?" asked Kira.

"That is something we don't know. But for him to stay a god with as much hatred in that tiny heart of his must mean someone is helping him." Tafari said. "Yes but who?" Ren asked not really wanting to know. "I have a good idea of who is helping him." Leo growled, "Vexlox."

"Makes sense, he always tries to find ways to destroy us, since we are the only thing standing between him and Kira." Tafari growled.

"Are you all going to be okay?" Kira asked looking at all of the hurt gods. "Yes, we will be just fine. You have to remember we are immortals. We can heal quickly." assured Leo. "That's good." said Kira snuggling into Leo's thick red mane.

"Well we must be leaving now." Ren said rising from his sitting position. "Yes we need to." Leo said rising from his laying position, Kira standing up with him.

"Please stop crying Kira, I can't stand to see you cry." said Leo wiping away her tears with his nose.

The other gods looked at Leo knowing more of Leo feelings toward Kira then she knows. Kira doesn't know that she has Leo to thank for her being alive. Without Leo jumping in, Kira would have been still born. Also when Kira first went to Earth, she was treated as an outcast. But Leo transformed into a human child her age and became her friend. She grew up not knowing what Leo really was until a creature attacked her. He showed his true form to protect her. After she was safe, he thought she would run away from him. But instead of running away she ran toward him happy that someone would do anything to protect her. That day she promised Leo that she would never tell anyone what he really was. She, her uncles, and cousins were the only ones who knew Leo's secret. Whenever she needed a friend or anything, Leo was there. Leo did everything for her; he always made her happy when she was sad.

"Okay Leo." she said wiping away the rest of the tears. Then they all left in flashes of red, gold and blue.

That night, the huge stone was brought into the middle of the city's square, where streamers and lanterns had been set up for decoration of the celebration. Kira stood next to Lion-O as Claudus addressed the crowd of people.

"It was many seasons ago when I set out Generals Grune and Panthro to find the fabled Book of Omens." He said, "While it remains lost, Grune has returned with tales of adventure, great treasure, and new lands to conquer! Today, we show him our appreciation!" Grune, a brown cat bigger than Claudus with one saber tooth sticking out of his mouth, stepped forward, and the crowd cheered loudly, applauding him and his efforts.

A second later, music began to play, and people began to dance. Kira then grabbed Lion-O's hand and dragged him on the dance floor. He was surprised as she dragged him and started spinning around.

She was laughing and soon Lion-O started to laugh too. They danced to the lively beat, not caring about all the weird looks they were getting from everyone. _'She dances so graceful like she is the wind! She truly is beautiful.'_ Lion-O was a little surprised that he thought that.

They kept dancing until they got tired. "Hey let's go get something to eat." Kira said pointing at a table full of food. Lion-O nodded.

As they walked towards it, they passed by a pair of stocks where two lizards were locked inside. Kira saw two boys come up and started throwing fruit at them. Kira growled and started walking over to them. Lion-O immediately noticed her absence from her side, "Kira?"

"Hey! Quit it!" she yelled at the boys. They saw her coming at them so they threw a tomato at her. To their surprise Kira easily caught it and crushed it in her hand. The boys ran away scared for their lives.

Kira looked over at the lizards and walked over to them. She looked at the two of them pitifully, then turned to one and asked with a soft, genuine smile, "Do you want some help." The lizards looked at her in surprise, and the one she had asked nodded his head. She took a towel out of her backpack and saw a bucket of water, poured water on a part of the towel then carefully wiping the purple juice from the lizard's face.

When it was all washed off, she walked over to the other one to do the same, but he just hissed angrily at her, making her jump back.

"We don't need your pity!" He spat. Kira stepped back, knowing that pride is something he had little left of.

"She was just trying to help." Lion-O said, stepping up and giving the lizard that had turned away her offer a harsh look. "Please, your majesty!" The other lizard begged, recognizing his name, "Show mercy!"

"Why should I?" Lion-O asked, "If the roles were reversed, you'd have lopped my head off by now." "We were only scavenging for food!" The other said, "When we were captured as slaves…" The other lizard hissed at him, making him stop.

"Forget it!" He said, "Looking for mercy from cats is like trying to squeeze water from a stone." He glared at Lion-O when he said this. "Hold your tongue, fool!" The other yelped worriedly, "They'll kill us!"

"No." Lion-O said to the first lizard calmly, "I want to hear this." He turned to the other lizard, "What do you mean?"

"We only attack to survive." The second lizard said, "You control the best lands and resources, leaving the rest of the animals to fight over _scraps_! If we steal your crops, it is to feed our _children_!" Lion-O turned his gaze to the ground, his eyes clouded in thought. Kira looked sadly at the lizards.

Tygra came from behind Kira and Lion-O. He put an arm around Lion-O's shoulders. "You're not taking this criminal seriously, are you?" He asked Lion-O with a joking grin. "_Criminal?_!" The lizard hissed angrily, "The lizards' only crime is being weaker than the cats! And it's the same for all animals." He turned his eyes to Kira, "And whatever you are." Kira scowled slightly.

"What I am is none of you business ." She said."Let's go." Tygra said to Lion-O, "It's time for the games." He walked away, and after a moment, Lion-O and Kira followed him.

Kira sat next to Lion-O at the big table that had the best seat for the games. At the table were his family and Grune, along with a picture of a panther that looked like he was going bald with a scar over one blind eye._ 'Looks a lot like Panthro but with hair, a scar, and a blind eye.' _though Kira.

"These games are dedicated to the life of an outstanding general and loyal friend." Claudus said, addressing the crowd before he started the games, "Who gave all he had in the name of Thundera." He raised his goblet up high, "To Panthro!" Lion-O, Kira, Tygra, and Grune did the same.

"To Panthro!" The crowd cheered loudly once they had done this, meaning it was time for the games to start. Kira looked at the center of the arena, where a large arrangement of thick branches had grown out of something resting beneath the surface of the huge pool of water. She watched as two cats began to climb up the branches, each one doing whatever they could to knock the other down into the water.

"_Ah_," Grune sighed as he ate some ripe grapes, "It truly is the little things you miss most."

"I imagine it was the experience of a lifetime." Claudus replied. "When you were out there, did you see any… technology?" Lion-O asked eagerly. _'Go figure.'_ Kira mentally slapped her forehead.

"Don't ask him stupid questions, Lion-O." Tygra said, Lion-O frowned at him. "I see nothing has changed, Claudus." Grune said, speaking to the king, "One son with his head on his shoulders, the other still with his in the clouds." He turned to Lion-O, "I'm afraid, Lion-O, I encountered all manner of beast and warrior, but nothing even _resembling_ technology. We did everything we could to find the book." Lion-O's hopeful expression fell.

'_I'll give him one thing, he sure can lie really good_.' said Tafari. _'What do you mean by that Tafari?'_ Kira asked wanting to know what Tafari meant. But the cheetah god stayed silent after that.

"Perhaps what the skeptics say is true," Tygra began, "The books existence is no more real than its stories of technology and Mumm-Ra." Kira's ears pricked at the name, having a bad feeling about this Mumm-Ra.

"I see so much of me in you." Grune said to Tygra as he put his arm around his shoulders, "You would have made a great king. But such honors must be reserved for the bloodline!" He glanced at Lion-O when he said this.

"Lion-O will be a great king." Kira said, speaking up for her friend. Lion-O looked at her, slightly surprised at her words.

"Of _course_ he will," Tygra said, "I just would have made a better one!" Grune laughed heartily at his words. "You're just _so_ perfect, aren't you, Tygra?" Lion-O asked with a sarcastic bite.

"Thank you, Lion-O." Tygra replied with a smirk. "Too bad you're afraid to get your tail kicked in front of your hero!" Lion-O snapped, standing up from his seat and pointing at Tygra.

"Now's not the time." Tygra said in a warning tone as he stood up from his seat, giving Lion-O a hard look. "Oh, I'd say now's the _perfect_ time!" Grune said, pointing to the arena in front of them, "Why don't you two have it out? Whoever rings the bell is the winner."

Lion-O and Tygra glared at each other, "You're on." Lion-O growled.

Kira looked down at where Lion-O and Tygra were waiting at the base of one of the biggest branches in the arena. A trumpet sounded, and Lion-O took off, clawing his way up the branch, heading straight for the bell. Tygra was only a few steps behind him, then he jumped up behind him, and Lion-O shot out his leg to kick him away, but Tygra blocked it and punched Lion-O's face, making him lose his grip and fall. Lion-O bounced off one of the branches, and then flipped over, landing on all fours the crowd cheered loudly at Tygra's move. Lion-O dashed up the branches, going up to Tygra. He tried to knock him off with punches and kicks, but Tygra easily blocked them. Finally, Lion-O landed a hit on his face and he tried to kick him off, but Tygra caught his foot and pushed him away and he kept climbing up the branch as Lion-O tried to regain his footing. Tygra said something to Lion-O that Kira couldn't make out, but whatever it was, it pissed Lion-O off and he ran up to where Tygra was standing, waiting for Lion-O to come to him. Kira stood up and yelled, "Lion-O just forget about what he said! He's just trying to get you mad!"

Claudus and Grune looked at her in surprise.

But Lion-O didn't hear her because he lifted his fist, ready to punch Tygra, but he was faster than him, and punched Lion-O back, making him fall down into the water. Then, he did a victorious stroll to the bell and jumped up on top of it, making it ring when he swung on it.

Kira saw his head pop out of the water. She walked away from the table, planning to go where Lion-O was getting out of the arena.

When she met him at the entrance, a servant who had been waiting gave him a towel to dry himself off. "Lion-O, it's not that big a deal." She said as he walked to his room, "There's no need to get so worked up over it." "No, there _is_." Lion-O said, turning to her, giving her one of the hardest looks she'd ever seen him wear, "Do you know what he said to me? When it comes to everything but the crown, I'll _always_ be second best, and he's right." He turned away and kept going to his room. Kira kept going after him.

"Lion-O listen." Kira said. Lion-O was ignoring her. Kira growled, she grabbed his arm and bit down hard. Lion-O yelped in pain and surprise. They stayed there like that for a minute. Then Kira let go of her grip on his arm.

"Now you listen." Kira growled, Lion-O obeyed, "You are not second best. He's just a jerk who likes making you mad. Lion-O, there are so many things that you can do that Tygra can't."

"Like what?" Lion-O snapped. "Well," Kira began quietly, slowing down until she stopped. "I don't know. I haven't known you long enough to tell."

"But there has to be something you can do that he can't." Kira thought for a second. "Wait you can dream and he can't. You're a dreamer and dreamers are way better than non-dreamers. Dreamers can make anything they can dream of."

"Thanks Kira. By the way, why did you bite me?" asked Lion-O. "Oh, I always do that when people won't listen to me. It made you listen didn't it." Kira said with a smile. "Yeah it did," Lion-O laughed rubbing the back of his head.

He sighed as he went up to a balcony that overlooked where the festival was. "It's official." He said as he looked over the piece of technology he had bought earlier, "They think I'm a failure. And they always will unless I can prove I'm not chasing a childish dream."

"Lion-O you're not a failure." Kira said trying to comfort the lion. "You will find a way to prove it. I believe in you." After saying that Kira placed a light kiss on Lion-O's cheek. Lion-O blushed after her lips left his cheek. He looked at her only to see her looking out at the crowd of cats.

"Thanks. But how am I supposed to prove it, when even Grune said there was no tech out there?" Lion-O said.

"Don't let what Grune failed to see stand in the way of what you believe." A voice said, the two of them looked to see Jaga walking towards them, and Kira saw Lion-O hide his technology behind his back. "The book says that our greatest king will possess the ability of sight _beyond_ sight."

"You mean like… having visions?" Lion-O asked. "More than that, Lion-O." Jaga said, "It's the ability to lead with clarity. For sight is useless without action." Lion-O looked away from Jaga for a moment, thinking, then looked back up at him.

"There's something I need to talk to you about, Jaga." Lion-O said, thinking that he should hear about his vision he had seen. Jaga put his hand on Lion-O's shoulder, "There will be time to talk later," He conspicuously moved Lion-O so he would go down the hallway in the direction to the festival below, "There's a party still going on. Enjoy yourselves." Lion-O smiled at the old cat man, and he smiled back.

"Thanks, Jaga." He said, he started walking to where the festival was, Kira following him.

They both walked out back to the festival. Kira saw something strange in the corner of her eye. She looked over to where she saw it. "What's wrong?" asked Lion-O noticing Kira looking at something.

"I'll be right back. Go ahead without me." With that said Kira walked over to that spot.

When she got to the spot, the thing she saw was gone. So she walked back to where Lion-O was. Then she saw Lion-O, Tygra, and Cheetara fighting a group of cats outside the stocks where the two lizards were.

"Oh no." she said.

She used her bolo whip to grab one of the cats by the arm and she pulled, making the cat be thrown into two other cats. Then Kira knocked more cats to ground with her whip.

Lion-O grabbed one cat by the collar of his shirt and got ready to punch his face, but was stopped by someone's voice.

"Lion-O!" He looked up to see his father, Grune, and two guards approaching. He dropped the cat and looked up at his father, "What is going on here? Protecting _lizards?_!"

"No, I'm protecting _us_," Lion-O said, he gestured to the lizards, "From turning into the very cold-blooded creatures we fear! These lizards did nothing, and should be released!"

"Release them?" Claudus repeated in shock, "Don't be foolish! As Lord of the ThunderCats, it is my duty to keep our people safe. And one day, it will be yours."

"You wanted me to start acting like a king," Lion-O began, "Well this is it. And I don't think the only way to rule is with a sword. Maybe we'd have less trouble with the lizards if we weren't always repressing them!" Claudus looked at his son thoughtfully, and then nodded once. The two guards that had come with him released the lizards from the stocks, and they wanted to thank Lion-O but the guards shooed them away.

"My lord," Grune said in a warning tone. "Consider this an act of goodwill between the species." Claudus said. He walked towards Lion-O, "Perhaps now, you might show some goodwill of your own, and take your responsibilities as prince more seriously." Lion-O nodded once and Claudus turned away, he, Grune, and the guards walking away.

The crowd Lion-O had been fighting left and Lion-O started to walk towards the palace walls. Kira found Snarf in front of the huge stone that Grune had brought with him, which still rested in front of the castle, even though the celebration had ended hours ago.

She smiled and laughed when she saw him making faces in his reflection in one of the large yellow stones sticking out from it. "Snarf!" He looked over at her, "Come on, let's go to bed." Snarf then ran to walk beside Kira as they walked back to the palace.

Neither of them saw the snake-like silhouette appearing in the yellow stone where Snarf had been looking at his reflection.


	5. Chapter 5 Omens: Part 2

Chapter 5 Omens: Part 2

_Kira's Dream…_

_It was a sad day for the nobles Tygra and Cheetara. Their only child, Kira, had to leave the planet Thundera. The noble Panthro along with King Claudus, Jaga, Lynx-O, Pumyra, Bengali, Snarf, WilyKit, WilyKat, and prince Lion-O gathered around Kira and her family._

_Tygra kneeled down to look at his seven year old daughter. "You need to be strong for us okay sweetheart." said the crying tiger. The little half tiger, half cheetah ThunderCat looked at her father and mother with tears in her pale red eyes._

"_But I don't want to leave!" she yelled hugging her father. "We know sweetheart, we don't want you to leave either. But you have to. It's to protect you. You'll have your cousins Ty and Chee with you and your uncles with you." said Cheetara looking at her baby. _

"_Kira we must be leaving soon." said her cheetah uncle. "Here sweetie," Cheetara handed Kira a gold bracelet with a ruby in it, "The ruby is a magical gem, we call it the Gem of Thundera. There is someone I'd like you to meet." Cheetara turned her daughter around. A giant cheetah stood where Kira's mother pointed._

"_This is Tafari, she is the cheetah god. She will help protect you while you're on Earth.  
"It is an honor to meet you Kira. Your mother told me a lot about you. I will use the Gem to come and help you when you need me. The other animal gods will also protect you." Tafari said bowing to the young Thunderkitten."Nice to meet you to." bowing Kira._

"_It is time for you all to leave." King Claudus said pointing to a ship. "Bye Kira." said Lion-O, WilyKit and Kat. "And behave while you're there, snarf, snarf." said Snarf tears in his eyes. "I will Snarf." Kira said hugging the furry snarf._

"_Before you all leave." Jaga said, "Earth is home to humans, there are no ThunderCats there. So in order for you all to live there for the time being, you need to look like humans."_

_With that being said, Jaga pulled something out of his cloak. He threw the powder on Kira, Ty, Chee, and the two uncles. There was a white flash, when it was gone they were no longer ThunderCats but humans."Now you can live among the humans, but remember you must keep your true selves a secret." Jaga said._

"_We'll be together again sweetheart, we promise." Tygra and Cheetara said to Kira hugging her one last time. "I love you." Kira said hugging her parents back. "We love you too sweetie."_

_They all got on the ship to go to their new home._

Kira woke up rubbing her eyes noticing tears on her face. She heard a meow. She looked at Snarf to see him worried. "I'm fine Snarf, I just dreamed of my parents." Kira said.

She swung her feet over the side of the bed and began walking towards the door, Snarf jumped off the bed, following her as she opened the door and headed out. "How about some breakfast?" Snarf mewed happily and followed her as she walked down the hall.

As she passed by Lion-O's room, she heard someone speaking, and she paused. She moved so her back was against the wall, listening to everything that was said. "Now is not the time to be tinkering with junk." Tygra's voice said, "People think you're crazy as it is."

"It's not junk, it's technology." Lion-O said, Kira heard the sound of a screw squeaking as it was being twisted out, "I don't care what they think." Kira peeked in through the doorway and saw that Lion-O was messing around with some technology he had bought in something of a study, with pictures and schematics of the technology he had taken apart hanging on walls all around the desk he was sitting at.

"Maybe you should." Tygra said, "People are talking about you pardoning those lizards. They say it's another example of you not taking your position as heir to the crown seriously." "We've been at war with the lizards for generations," Lion-O said, trying to open up the technology he had in his hands, "Maybe it's time to look at things differently."

"That's your problem." Tygra said as he reached down and picked up another little tech device that Kira had no clue about. "You look at lizards and see victims. You look at junk and see mythical tech. When are you going to grow up?" Lion-O stood up from his chair and snatched the technology out of Tygra's hands. He looked at it for a moment, and then looked up at Tygra.

"When I do, I hope I'm nothing like you." Lion-O said, Tygra growled threateningly at him. Kira turned to leave when something sharp flew at her face.

"Ahhh!"

The two cat brothers heard her cry and went over to the door to see a white tiger standing in front of Kira holding a sword between his two fingers, the sharp end almost touching his nose. With one swift move he threw it back to where it came from. A grunt was heard from the shadows. From the shadows stepped out a man that looked much like the one from yesterday in the throne room.

One of his hands was at his throat blood covered his hand from where the sword struck his neck. He said something no one could understand, and then he fell to the ground, dead.

"Ren." Kira said in a soft voice.

Ren is a tall white tiger, built like Tygra. He has on a blue headband to keep his untamable white hair out of his bright blue eyes. The tips of his hair were black. He has one black strip on each cheek. He wore a blue loose short sleeved shirt with the ThunderCat insignia on his chest. Under his blue shirt was a skin tight black shirt with the sleeves stopping at his elbows. He also wore black pants that stopped at his knees. On his feet were navy blue sandals that showed his heels and the claw part of his feet.

Ren turned to Kira, "You okay?" he asked. "Yeah thanks," replied Kira. "Any time Kira," Ren said walking over to the body. He turned over the body looking for something. "What are you looking?" Kira asked. "Something that tells his rank." Ren said hands still searching for a sign. "Looks like he's a high ranking general."

Ren pulled a necklace from the man's neck. The dead man's hand shot out and grabbed Ren's wrist. The man's eyes opened then he said, "The girl will die by Lord Vexlox's hands. You pathetic gods can only delay her death," he looked over at Kira, "You will die and no one can protect you…" those were his last words.

"Don't listen to him Kira." Ren said prying the dead general's hand off his wrist. "He'll say anything to make you scared."

"I know he would and I'm not." Kira said.

Ren grabbed the general's body and slung him over his shoulder. "I'll tell Leo about this one but he probably already knows." And Ren disappeared in a blue flash.

Kira was in the garden playing with Snarf when she heard a loud horn go off. It was the same one that announced Grune's arrival, but this one was different, it kept going off instead of just making one, long sound. She got up, Snarf trailing close behind her and she ran out of the garden and into the palace. She saw people suddenly rushing around, and she ran down the hallway to Lion-O's room to find that he was just coming out of it.

"I think we're about to be attacked." Lion-O said. He dashed off somewhere, and Kira and Snarf quickly followed him, going to a lookout point where Claudus, Tygra, Grune, and Jaga already were. They looked out, and on the horizon, Kira could see the smokestacks from fires made by the enemy, whoever they were.

"This attack comes not a day after I pardon two of those filthy beasts!" Claudus growled, glaring at the oncoming enemy. Kira was surprised to hear that the lizards were attacking. Claudus turned to Lion-O, "Now do you see the results of leniency?"

"I was only trying to act like a prince." Lion-O said. "You undermined our power and made the cats look weak!" Claudus said, turning away, "It's no wonder everyone thinks your brother should be king." His words struck Lion-O like a blade to his heart, and Kira could see it in the look on his face.

"Grune, Tygra, come with me. We need to ready our defenses. Jaga, prepare your clerics." The three nodded as they took his orders. Lion-O walked in, Kira just behind him.

"And me?" He asked, wanting to help his father. Claudus looked over his shoulder at Lion-O. "You will remain here." Claudus said his tone cold. He briskly walked away, Grune and Tygra following him. Lion-O's face fell in sadness.

"He's lost all faith in me, Jaga." He said, turning to the elderly cat. "What is important is that you don't lose faith in yourself." He said wisely. He nodded at Kira once before taking his leave, going to prepare his clerics.

"We need to find somewhere safe." Lion-O said as he grabbed her wrist and dashed off. He took her to a part of the castle near the top, a much smaller look-out point, but one that looked over the entire kingdom, not just the wall in front of it. He pulled out a telescope to watch the battle.

Everything seemed to be progressing as it normally would in a battle of cats versus lizards, and it looked like the cats were gonna win. But something changed, something was fired from a distance, and it came hurtling towards the city.

The missile, along with three smaller ones that had branched off from it made contact with the city, exploding on contact, and multiple explosions happened around the castle, making it shake.

Lion-O looked through a telescope to see lizards inside Thundera. Then he looked out to the walls, and gasped when he saw that the lizards had more than just missiles for technology.

"I just… can't believe it."Kira gave him an odd look, "Technology was my dream. How did it become my nightmare?" said Lion-O. He looked down at the lizards as they went around the castle, his eyes widened when he saw a very familiar disc-like piece of technology being put on one of the castle's statues. He watched as the lizard soldier carefully put his finger to the small screen on the front, and running away once it began to light up, one bar disappearing each time it lit up. Once all the bars were no longer lighting, the device exploded. Lion-O pulled back from the telescope, his eyes wide in shock.

Lion-O suddenly got up. Kira and Snarf followed him as they went to his room, to his secret hiding place where he kept his technology. She watched as Lion-O picked up one of his pieces of technology, putting his finger to the small screen on it and watching it light up. Kira could hear the device quickly beeping, getting faster and faster as time went on.

"All those years of listening to people tell me I was crazy for believing in this," Lion-O said, putting his fingers to the screen again and turning it off. He turned to Kira, "Well, Kira, it's about to pay off."

Lion-O got on a riding mount while Kira ran beside the mount as they went toward the arena. When they arrived, they saw that Grune was wearing a different armor, and seemed to be the one in control of all the lizards, ordering them around as they slowly surrounded Claudus and Tygra.

"Your rule has come to a long overdue end, Claudus." Grune said from the arena, where a cat that must have been Panthro was being held captive at the top of the branches. "Now drop your inferior weapons! How can you defeat technology if you don't even understand it?" The lizards pointed their weapons, be it bladed guns, or just plain normal guns, at the two cats.

"Luckily, I know a thing or two about it, you _traitor_!" He snarled, he touched the screen and flung out the bomb at one of the gigantic robotic lizards, having it land successfully on his back. He flung out two others and watched as they exploded not long after the first one. Once the smoke from the explosions had cleared, Claudus looked up to see Lion-O on his riding animal, Kira beside him on the ground.

Claudus stood up and walked towards him, bowing once, then turning around and began walking away. "Where are you going?" "To show the lizards that the Sword of Omens is the greatest weapon of them all." Claudus said, drawing his sword from where it rested in his gauntlet. "ThunderCats! _Ho_!" Claudus held the sword up high, letting the lightning pour out from the blade before running at the army of lizards. With a single swipe, he had taken out six lizards. Another swipe and he had taken out twelve.

He easily climbed up the branches, heading for Grune. Grune pulled out his weapon, which looked like a spiked, bludgeoning object and pointed one end at Claudus. The weapon separated into three parts, green lighting generating between each piece, and a huge bolt of it shot out at Claudus, who held up his sword and stopped the lightning from hitting him.

He battled with it for a moment before having the lightning blast shoot away from him and he jumped up to where Grune was, his sword clashing with his weapon. Grune was easily knocked away onto the branch and he lay there.

'_That was too easy. Something's not right.' _Kira thought. She and ran up to the edge of the water around the branches as Claudus climbed up to the top where Panthro was bound. Lion-O jumped off his riding animal after her, confused as to why she had come off.

"What is it?" Lion-O asked as he came up beside her.

She turned to Lion-O, "Go and get your dad. I don't have a good feeling about this." Then she looked back at Panthro, "My sixth sense is telling so."

Lion-O looked at her confused, _'Sixth sense?' _but he nodded and started going over to where his father was, calmly climbing up the branches, Tygra doing the same, not because he felt something was wrong, but because he wanted to be by his father's side. Claudus cut through the chains holding Panthro, who collapsed to the ground once they were released. "You… You came for me." Panthro said, sounding surprised. Claudus smiled and knelt down in front of him, putting his hand on his shoulder.

"I'd fight an army twice that size for you, old friend." He said. He stood back up and held his sword up high, "Now help me!" Kira's eyes widened as she saw Panthro's eyes darken and he pulled out a knife.

"No!" She screamed without realizing it, covering her mouth in shock. Lion-O saw the knife as well, and started climbing faster. "Father!" He cried, Claudus looked at them confusedly, and then roared out in pain when Panthro stabbed him in the back with the knife, "No!" Panthro easily pushed Claudus away, watching him as he fell into the water. Lion-O and Tygra quickly dove in after him and pulled him up from the water.

She jumped up and went over to one of the branch's bases and helped Lion-O and Tygra lay their father down on it. "Father…!" Lion-O said, trying to get him to wake up. Claudus opened his eyes, which now seemed cloudy as his life began to slip away.

"No matter what happens…" He said, "You've made me proud today…" He let out a soft breath and closed his eyes. The gauntlet he wore suddenly dimmed in color, changing from a lovely bronze, to a darkened one, rusted and weak. Above them, Panthro chuckled darkly.

Lion-O looked up at him, glaring, "You… A traitor, too, Panthro_?_!"

"Not quite." Panthro said with a dark grin, "Have you not considered that if technology is real," Kira noticed his voice beginning to change, from deep and strong, to hissing and rough, "Then so are the things of your worst nightmares?" He was suddenly engulfed in a blue fire, and his form burned away to a decayed, mummified body of an ancient demon with red eyes.

"Mumm-Ra…" Lion-O muttered, recognizing him from the old stories.

"Clerics!" A voice shouted, they all looked to see Jaga and his clerics standing on the remains of the arena's walls, "To the death!" They all jumped up and leapt towards the demon, who gave them a terrifying smile. "You are but insects," He raised up his clawed hands, "To the power of _Mumm-Ra! The ever-living!_" They were all blasted back by his power.

They heard hisses and looked to see the lizards had surrounded them, pointing their weapons at them. Mumm-Ra raised a clawed hand up high, proclaiming, "Thundera has fallen!" The lizards hissed and cheered loudly, claiming their victory in the battle.

Mumm-Ra came down to where Kira, Lion-O, and Tygra stood. "You." He said looking at Kira then to her bracelet. "The gem of Thundera. I have only heard stories of this gem and its power."

"Soldiers!" Mumm-Ra called to the lizards surrounding them, "Take them to the dungeon."

"We lost our kingdom, our father, and the sword." Tygra said "We lost everything." "This is my fault, Tygra." Lion-O said, voicing his thoughts, "I didn't know what it meant at the time, but I _did_ see a vision through the sword." He turned to his brother, "It was Mumm-Ra."

"And you told _no one?_!" Tygra snapped, getting up from where he sat to glare at his brother. "This is exactly why you aren't fit to be king! Your decisions _always_ bring disaster!"

"Lion-O must have had a good reason to not tell anyone. Right Lion-O?" Kira said standing up. Lion-O said nothing.

"Suppertime." A voice hissed outside the cell, and a familiar lizard came by the cell, giving them two bowls of slop, "I brought you a very _special_ meal." Lion-O ran up to the cell gate, putting his hands on the bars.

"Hey, remember me?" He asked, "I granted you mercy. A chance for _peace_ between our species, and this is how you repay me?" The lizard averted his eyes and turned away, "You can't even _look_ at me!"

"Just eat your supper!" The lizard snapped, walking away. Lion-O looked down at the food in depression, but his eyes lit up when he saw something glinting in the light of the prison in one of the bowls. He reached down and went through it, trying to get a grip on it. Tygra noticed what he was doing and walked over.

"What is it?" He asked.

Lion-O smiled when he got a hold of it, "Sometimes, my decisions bring disaster," He pulled out the silver key from the slop, "And sometimes, they bring a key." They both turned their heads when Kira's bloodcurdling scream filled their ears again.

Tygra had successfully taken out one of the lizard's guarding the area a little ways away from them. Lion-O, who was only a few feet away, saw him waving the guard's gun, showing that he had gotten him.

Lion-O nodded at him, then looked down, and saw Jaga being tortured by Mumm-Ra. Tygra aimed his new gun at the wrappings holding Jaga up and shot through them, having Jaga fall to the ground. He smiled and looked at the gun.

"I could get used to this." He said, he ducked when the lizards' general, Slithe, started shooting at him. Lion-O leapt down from the balcony and ran to the sword, grasping it tightly in his hands.

"You took my father's life," He growled, "But you won't take his sword!" He swung the sword, lengthening it, "Thunder." He swung it again, the blade growing again, "Thunder!" He swung it a third time, the blade growing out to its full length, "_Thunder!_" He held the sword up high, the stone in the sword glowing, "ThunderCats! _Ho!_" He brought the sword down, and the stone in the sword shot out a bright beam of light that pushed Mumm-Ra threw the wall of the castle to the outside, where the morning sun was just beginning to rise.

"You cannot comprehend the forces you are dealing with!" Mumm-Ra said, "Ancient Spirits of evil transform this decayed form into _Mumm-Ra! The ever_— Aah!" He stopped, the light from the sun burning him and causing him pain, making him hide beneath his red cloak.

Inside, as Tygra jumped down after Lion-O, he freed the cleric from where she was bound, and she took out the two lizards who were trying to stop her, and she looked over at the two brothers, who looked back at her in shock.

"Cheetara?" Tygra asked in surprise.

"She's a cleric?" Lion-O asked, just as surprised as Tygra. He ducked when the lizards began firing their weapons at them. They all started to run away. Jaga went to a torch on the wall, and turned it to the side, opening up a secret door. One of the lizards shot Kira in the back and she screamed in pain. Lion-O picked her up and carried her to the door.

"Quickly, through here!" He said, everyone went in, Snarf going in first. Jaga waited until everyone was inside the door, Lion-O and Kira going in just before him, and he started walking in. One of the lizards fired off his weapon and hit Jaga in his back just before the door closed. Cheetara went back and helped her mentor to his feet, putting his arm around her shoulders as they walked through the hallways. The walls were shaking from the force of the lizards trying to shoot through the door that led to the secret passageway.

"Before we go any further, there is something that must be done…!" Jaga said as they came to the other side of the walkway, just on the other side of safety. "It can wait." Cheetara said, Jaga stopped, and gently pushed her aside so he could stand up.

"It _must_ be now!" He said. Lion-O came up to them, standing in front of Jaga, and gently putting Kira down on the ground. Jaga nodded at him, "Your left arm." Lion-O held it out as he asked, and Jaga took Claudus's gauntlet, which Cheetara had grabbed before they had run into the passageway, and put it on Lion-O's arm. Lion-O looked curiously at the gauntlet, moving his fingers inside it. Jaga reached out for it and rested his hand on it. Cheetara and Tygra doing the same. "For the Eye of Thundera, and the Sword of Omens." Jaga tapped the gauntlet with his staff, and the bronze of it no longer seemed dim. It seemed as bright and as golden when his father had worn it. Jaga used his staff as a crutch as he stood up, "Now, Lion-O, Lord of the ThunderCats, go."

"You're going with us, Jaga!" Cheetara said, standing up.

"I will only slow you down." Jaga said as Tygra bent down and carefully picked up Kira, "At least this way, I can buy you time to get to safety." He reached out and put his hand on Lion-O's shoulder, "The Book of Omens lies at the foot of the setting sun. You must find it before Mumm-Ra does."

"I can't do this alone!" Lion-O said, trying to convince Jaga to come with them.

"You won't have to." Jaga said, "You have everything you need, Lion-O. Whatever questions remain, the answers are in the Book of Omens. Find it. Now," He pushed him forward, "Go!" Everyone jumped as the doors to the secret entrance were suddenly blown open. Jaga waved them forward, "_Go_!" They did as he ordered, and ran through the tunnel. As Jaga fought off the oncoming lizards, Lion-O couldn't help but steal a glance back at the old cat as he fought back. One of the weapons landed a hit on him, and a cloud of dust appeared from it as Jaga screamed in pain. The second door to the escape tunnel closed behind them.

At the end, they came out of a tunnel that overlooked the entire kingdom. Everyone gazed down at the rubble that remained of the kingdom. "This is only the beginning." Lion-O said, looking out over at the destroyed kingdom.

Kira could remember no more, because she had fallen asleep in Tygra's arms from exhaustion.


	6. Chapter 6 Ramlak Rising

Chapter 6 Ramlak Rising

A familiar tune was being hummed in the background. Kira remembered it from when she was younger. The beautiful tune calmed her as she floated in nothingness. She was at peace.

"_Kira." _

Someone was calling her.

"_Kira, sweetheart."_

It was a sweet voice.

"_Kira, please wake up."_

Kira slowly opened her eyes to see Tafari's warm eyes. "Tafari?" Kira asked trying to sit up.

"Easy, you are still very sore." Tafari said helping her sit up. Kira was lying in Tafari's lap. Beside Tafari were Cheetara, Kishan, and Aria. Aria has white pink tinted fur and light violet eyes. She wore an amethyst colored armor with an amethyst gem on her chest. On her back was a golden bow and arrows. Her long pink tinted hair was in a French braid. Kishan was a tall muscular tiger. He wore jade green armor with a jade gem on his chest. He looked a little bit older then Tygra but had the same hair and eyes as him. On his right hip was a golden whip strapped to his belt.

"Tafari is right Kira. While I have healed most of your injuries, you will be sore for the next few days." Aria said looking Kira over for anymore injuries. Lion-O and Tygra noticed Kira was awake and walked over to her. "Kira, you okay?" Lion-O asked looking at her with concern in his blue eyes.

"Yeah I'm fine for right now." Kira said looking at Lion-O with a smile. She looked around, and was surprised to see a burning funeral pyre a few feet away from them, and saw Claudus's corpse. Lion-O turned to it, "Rest now to rise again, father." He said.

"May your next life show you peace." Tygra said. After a moment of respectful silence, Lion-O turned to the others.

"We should move out while the lizards' trail is still fresh." He said to them, "Mumm-Ra's lair is probably past the sand sea, so we have quite a journey ahead of us."

"Mumm-Ra?" Cheetara repeated in confusion, "Jaga told us to first seek out the Book of Omens. Those were my teacher's last words to us…"

"The Book can wait." Lion-O said, "It has for centuries."

"But only the Book can provide us answers, Lion-O." Tygra said.

"Answers?" Lion-O repeated angrily, "I already know who _destroyed_ our city, who _killed_ our king! What other _answers_ do you need? If it was either one of us on that funeral pyre, father would have already buried that demon! I intend to do him the same justice!"

"You're angry, Lion-O." Cheetara said, trying to reason with him.

"I should hope I'm not the only one!" Lion-O snarled, "We're going after Mumm-Ra, and that's a command." He turned and started walking.

"You _are_ the king." Tygra said, his tone showing that he didn't think he should be king.

Kira and the gods looked at Lion-O. "This isn't going to turn out so good." Kishan said.

"We have to go. Leo needs us to back in the kingdom now." Aria said then turning leaving in an amethyst flash. Kishan left in a green flash. Tafari hugged Kira and kissed her on the head. "Be careful."

"I will." replied Kira hugging the cheetah back.

Kira caught up with the others. She walked between Tygra and Cheetara. They walked through the city,

They walked through the gates of the city, past the battlefield where the lizards fought the cats. Bits of technology were lying around everywhere, be it guns, or robots, or some kind of other piece of technology. As they walked along the path, they were met with a surprise. Two young Thunderkittens ran out and smiled, looking up at Lion-O in awe.

"I can't believe it!" The little girl said, "Prince Lion-O and Tygra to the rescue!" The other one, her brother, came up in front of Lion-O. "The names are WilyKat and Kit!" He introduced, "We thought we were the only cats left!" Lion-O ignored them and walked on. The two kids glanced at each other confusedly, wondering why he was acting like this, but they didn't give up. They ran up behind Lion-O and kept speaking to him.

"Maybe we can join you until we get where we're going." WilyKit said, "El Dara, the city of treasure!"

"Never heard of it." Lion-O said. "Of course not!" WilyKat said, pulling out a scroll, "I've got the only proof!"

"No." Lion-O said firmly. The two kids stopped walking, and pouted sadly.

"Please?" WilyKit begged. Lion-O didn't say anything.

"We can't just leave them here, Lion-O." Kira said walking up to the kittens placing a hand on their shoulders. "We're on a mission to avenge my father, and you want to play babysitter?" Lion-O asked incredulously, "They're just gonna have to take care of themselves! Now, let's go." He walked on. Tygra and Cheetara exchanged uncertain glances and followed Lion-O. The two kids go up and started making cute little mewing noises and big doe eyes at Lion-O in order to convince him to let them go with him. "I said no." They frowned when their attempt didn't work and stopped walking.

As Tygra walked past them, he said, "Sorry, kids." The two siblings glanced at each other, then started walking behind the group. "Just so you know, we're not following you." WilyKat said.

"_You're_ just walking in front of us." WilyKit finished. Kira smiled, _'Just like WilyKit and Kat back home.' _Kira then thought about how her friends and family on Thundera are doing.

They set up camp after it got dark. Kira sat on the ground in front of the fire with the log behind her. She watched the twins play around and chased each other. They noticed her stares and ran over to her. "So why are you staring at us like that?" WilyKit asked. "Oh, sorry you two just reminded me of two of my friends." Kira said. "Really?" WilyKat said looking surprised. "Yes, they were twins like the two of you and were always getting into trouble." Kira said closing her eyes remembering times she got in trouble with the Wily twins.

"_This way! Hurry!" a young boy yelled to his sister and friend. "We're coming WilyKat!" yelled a young girl with the half cheetah, half tiger girl in tow._

"_Where are we going?" Kira yelled to the twins wanting to know where they were going. "Just hang on we're almost there." WilyKit said. They kept running till they reached a huge building._

"_Why are we here?" Kira asked. "You'll see." WilyKat said with a smile of mischievousness._

_They all walked into the building._

_Few minutes later…_

_The doors busted open and out ran Kira and the Wily twins. "Ahhh!" they screamed while being chased by three guards that were covered in paint. "Get back here!" they yelled. _

"_Run!" Kira yelled. While they ran they laughed and laughed._

"Hello!" Kira jumped. WilyKit and Kat looked at her. "You okay? You just spaced out for a minute there." WilyKat asked tilting his head to one side.

"Yeah I'm fine. I was just thinking." Kira said.

"Dinner!" Cheetara called to Kira and the twins.

"Yay!" the twins yelled with joy. They ran over to the food. Kira slowly got up and after a few steps then she stopped. Lion-O noticed this, "Kira?" Then Kira took one more step only to fall on the ground.

"Kira!" Lion-O yelled, he ran over to her the others following after. Lion-O turned her over, she was unconscious. Cheetara put her hand on Kira's forehead. "She fainted." said the cheetah.

Lion-O picked her up and carried her to her sleeping bag. He gently put her in her sleeping bag. Lion-O brushed a stray hair out of her face.

_4 days later…_

"We've lost the trail, Lion-O." Tygra said when he saw Lion-O looking around for a sign of the sand sea.

"And our supplies are _dangerously_ low." Cheetara said, checking the bag that held their rations and finding it to be empty. "I don't care. We keep moving forward." Lion-O said firmly. He started walking away from their group. Snarf collapsed on the ground tiredly. He looked ahead and let out a surprised cry. The twins and Kira looked at what he saw.

"What is _that?_!" WilyKat exclaimed. Lion-O ran back to their group and saw what they saw. The sand of the desert was moving and shifting like ocean waves, and it was even spilling out and crashing against the sand like a wave would.

"Snarf just found the sand sea." Lion-O said, "Mumm-Ra's lair must be just on the other side." They all walked to the shore of the sand sea. "Do you see a way around it?" Tygra asked.

"I think I see something better!" WilyKat said, pointing to the pile of fruit and meat sitting out on the waves.

"Food!" Kira and WilyKit cheered happily. Everyone cheered happily and ran into the sand sea, heading straight for the huge pile of food. The two kids were the first ones to reach it and they crashed down on it happily, making it go flying.

Everyone picked up a piece of food and started chowing down.

"Hey, anyone else wondering where all this came from?"Cheetara said. Everyone shared glances, a sudden sense of dread filling them up. Only a second later did something come rushing towards them through the sand, and the group was caught up in a hidden fish net and pulled into the air. Everyone screamed as they headed for a ship, landing on its deck. Lion-O growled furiously and glared at the fish man looking down at them with huge, green eyes.

"Quite the catch, I'd say." He said, looking at them in the net. The other members of the crew gathered around the net, looking at them with hungry eyes. "What's all that racket?" A voice shouted, the crew looked over at another fish that had lost one eye, and half a leg, "That better be the ramlak you spineless jellyfish are carrying on about." He walked up, going over the group with a discerning eye, and then scoffed, "Another worthless haul." He turned to a larger fish man next to him who wore a chef's hat and carried a pair of kitchen knives, "Take what the crew doesn't eat of them, and turn it into chum." The chef fish smiled devilishly and started sharpening his knives. The fish who had given the order kept speaking as everyone was pulled out of the net and tied up together with one rope. "That bait was meant for the beast! I'm tired of you lot pulling in more worthless catches like these!"

"I am Lion-O, Lord of the ThunderCats," Lion-O said, getting his attention, "And I order you to release us!" The one-legged fish looked at Lion-O in surprise, then he and the crew laughed heartily.

"It talks!" The fish man said with a grin, "And it's still got some fight in it! Well, _Lion-O, Lord of the ThunderCats_, I am Koinelius Tunar, captain of this ship, and I order you _fileted_!"

"Let's start with the little ones," The cook fish said as he sharpened his knives, "Their meat'll be the most deliciously tender." WilyKit and WilyKat looked up at the big fish fearfully. Kira who was tied next to Kit and Kat let out a feral growl that sounded like a cheetah and tiger combined, glaring at the fish. Lion-O and the others looked surprised at Kira. Her eyes looked like a ThunderCat's eyes. The fish looked surprised as well. Kira bared her teeth to show razor sharp fangs much like a ThunderCat's.

A huge, green squid like tentacle came up to the ship and grabbed one of the crew members by the leg and pulled him into the sand sea. "The ramlak…" Koinelius breathed, "At long last, my wretched quarry returns!" A loud, deep growling noise was heard from the sand as more tentacles poked out from below. One of them slammed down on the ship and a crew member picked up a harpoon gun and fired at it. The harpoon pierced through it and the creature roared out in great agony, retracting its tentacle into the sand, pulling the crewman with it. It swung the fish man around, making the harpoon come out from the tentacle, throwing the crewman against the ship; making him drop his gun and having it slide away from him. Cheetara reached out with her foot to stop it and carefully moved it so the blade of the harpoon would go up against the ropes they were bound in. The creature below the ship brought up one of its tentacles and started tearing through the ship, making some of the crew members run away in fear. The captain watched them run with wide eyes.

"Come on, you filthy maggots!" He shouted at them, "This is the moment we've waited for! _Fight_!" As the creature tore up the ship, Cheetara and Tygra were carefully moving the blade of the harpoon to cut through the ropes they were bound in. When the ropes snapped, they all got up and went to help fight the creature that was attacking them. Once they got closer, a tentacle wrapped around each of them, pulling them up into the air. Kira bit down on the tentacle and got a hand free and started to claw at it with razor sharp claws. In its pain, it released her, and she gracefully landed on the deck. Lion-O pulled out his sword and cut through his tentacle, and the tentacle holding WilyKat and WilyKit. Koinelius looked upon them in awe, and then turned back to his crew. "The food's fightin' better than you!" He walked over to Lion-O with a grin, "That's the spirit, boy-o! Show this cowardly crew how it's done!"

As a tentacle came closer to him, Koinelius sliced through it with his sword. Kira used her staff and speed to cut through the tentacles. Tygra was shooting each of the tentacles with the gun he'd stolen from the lizards; Cheetara was using her staff as a powerful weapon, her speed alone making the tentacles come off. WilyKat and WilyKit had bitten down on one of the tentacles, refusing to let it escape their jaws. All of this was too much for the creature, and it began to retreat, retracting its many tentacles and keeping itself below the sand as it moved away.

"Run you coward!" Koinelius shouted at it, "You can't escape me forever! I'll follow ya straight to the flamin' pits of Magmel before I give you up!" The creature disappeared completely from sight, and everyone was safe for now. Lion-O turned to Koinelius with an angry glare.

"Now, what were we talking about before the interruption?" He asked, more than prepared to fight the man.

"I believe we were discussing how we'd filet you," Koinelius began, walking over to Lion-O and putting his hand on his shoulder, "But had I'd known you were such fine warriors, I would have gladly served my own first mate to you on a platter." A koi fish man looked scared. "Listen up, fishies!" Koinelius turned to his crew, "These fine fellows are our new shipmates, so treat 'em like you would your own scaly brothers!" He turned to the cook, "And fetch the little ones some food."

"Food!" WilyKat and Kit cried happily, following the cook below deck to get something to eat. Koinelius turned to Lion-O, "Let me give ya a tour of the ship." He walked away, Lion-O following him as they started walking around the deck again.

The first mate smiled as he came over to Cheetara, Tygra, and Kira. "Welcome to the crew." He said, holding three brooms in his hands. He gave one to Cheetara, who didn't look very pleased about it. "Why don't I feel good about this, Tygra?" She asked, she looked around when she noticed Tygra wasn't there, "Tygra?" She heard retching sounds and looked to see him hanging over the side of the ship, vomiting. Kira looked over at Tygra then walked over to him.

"You okay?" Kira asked rubbing his back. Tygra looked at her with surprised eyes. "Yeah, I'm fine." he said.

Kira looked up when she saw the sky was beginning to darken, and looked to see they were sailing into a storm. It was strange for her to see a storm in the middle of the desert, and it scared her a little when she realized it was a dry lightning storm, which was one of the most dangerous kind.

"Quit floppin' around, you lazy lubs!" Koinelius shouted down at his crew, "The chase is on!" Everyone dropped what they were doing and went to get prepared for the ramlak.

"Thunderstorm just blew in ahead!" She heard the first mate yell, she looked to see he was talking to Koinelius and Lion-O, "I advise we sail around it!"

"And lose the ramlak's trail?" Koinelius asked incredulously as he snatched the telescope out of the first mate's hands and looked ahead of them, "Full speed ahead!"

"But Captain, we'll never survive!" yelled the first mate.

"The only thing that's not surviving is the ramlak!" Lion-O said as he pushed the helmsman out of the way and took the wheel, "Into the storm we go!" He directed the ship into the storm. Tygra, Cheetara, and Kira all looked at him incredulously.

"Lion-O! This is madness!" Tygra exclaimed, "What are you _doing?_!"

"Not letting anything stand in my way!" Lion-O replied, "Not a storm! Not _you_!" Kira, Tygra and Cheetara looked at each other in shock.

Koinelius came up beside Lion-O as they followed the ramlak through the sand. "Faster! Faster!" He ordered Lion-O, "I can taste its foul breath on the wind!"

"Captain, please!" Cheetara pleaded with him, "The ship won't survive long in this storm!"

"I see you're just as soft as the rest of the chum on this ship!" Koinelius said, he turned to Lion-O, "Come on, lad! It's you and me!"

"I'm right beside you, Captain." Lion-O said, he followed the captain onto the deck, and when he ordered him to, Lion-O climbed up the mast and onto the top of the sails, taking out his sword to slice any projectiles that were flying around in the storm. Koinelius went to a device at the front of the ship and started blasting away the bigger ones.

"Isn't it exhilarating?" Koinelius called up to Lion-O with a laugh. "Don't forget to save some for the ramlak!" Lion-O called back, laughing crazily with him. Everyone looked up at Lion-O worriedly as he kept slicing away. Kira looked ahead of them, and her eyes widened at the sight of the ramlak as it came up from the sand, giving a huge roar.

"It's surfacing!" Koinelius exclaimed, "Now's our chance!" The crew stood ready with their harpoons, but they certainly weren't ready to face the creature. The ramlak was twice the size of the ship! It looked like a large purple tube flower, with red tentacles surrounding its mouth at the top of its body. It had huge tentacles that could crush the ship in two with a single blow. Koinelius went up to the blaster at the front of the ship, looking at Lion-O, "You ready, my boy?"

Lion-O held up a harpoon gun, "Always." He fired it at the ramlak, only to have it get stuck in its flesh and pulled away from him. He pulled out his sword and started slicing away at its tentacles while Koinelius blasted at its head. One of the tentacles wrapped around the mast of the ship, breaking it off and having it crash down onto a part of the ship, destroying it. The tentacles easily knocked back the crew members that tried to keep it away.

"Take out the arms!" Koinelius shouted to the crew, "Then we go for the head!" Everyone did as he ordered. Tygra used his gun to take out each one while Cheetara used her staff like before. The ramlak grabbed onto the ship with its tentacles, getting a good grip on it and squeezing it. It slowly, but surely, began to crush the ship, and the device that kept it above the sands was broken, causing the ship to fall into the sand, and the crew members fell off the ship into the sand as well.

Kira screamed and used her whip to wrap around a pole to keep her from falling in the sand. Lion-O saw the distressed crew as they called for help, and saw Kira struggling to hang onto the ship. He looked at them worriedly, wanting to go and help them.

"What are you doing?" Koinelius demanded of him when he saw he was still, "Don't stop, lad! Its end is nigh!" "The crew… they're going to drown!" Lion-O said, "And my friend—!"

"Never mind them!" Koinelius interrupted, "We can always get a new crew. We finish this now, before he submerges again!" "Isn't it the crew we're fighting for?" Lion-O shouted back.

"Don't tell me you've gone soft like the rest!" Koinelius said in exasperation as he picked up a harpoon gun.

"I guess I am." Lion-O said, he jumped away on various pieces of the ship to try and help the crew. He looked up at Kira, who screamed as her whip's grip finally slipped, and she began to fall. Thinking quickly, he jumped up and caught her as she almost hit the sand and landed on a piece of the ship that was still intact. He put her down on it. "Thanks." Kira said hugging Lion-O. "No problem." he replied.

Lion-O stood up and shouted, "Everyone! Over here!" The crew followed his voice and swam through the sand to the wreckage that was still intact and stable enough for them to be on. Kira reached out and helped crew members onto the wreckage. Once everyone had at least grabbed onto the wreckage, Lion-O used a harpoon gun to shoot at the leftover piece of the ship's hull and began pulling it towards them so everyone would be able to rest on it until the storm passed. WilyKat and WilyKit cheered him on as he kept pulling on the rope. Cheetara and Tygra went over to Lion-O.

"You steered us into quite a storm, Lion-O." She said with a small smile.

"I know." Lion-O said guilty, "I lost sight of what's important, and for that, I'm—" He was interrupted by a roar as the ramlak resurfaced. Its mouth opened up and two tentacles came out and wrapped around Lion-O's body, pulling him up.

"Lion-O!" Kira exclaimed.

"Give him back you slimy sack of tentacles!" WilyKat yelled at it. The beast didn't listen as it swallowed Lion-O whole and moved back down for another bite. Kira jumped in front of the kittens to protect them. The kittens were screaming in fear.

Suddenly, the ramlak stopped, went back up, and cried out as something powerful pierced through its skin. Kira yelled in joy when she saw it was Lion-O cutting his way out of the creature. Following him out of the creature was a huge blast of water that quickly surrounded them. The crew cheered in joy at the sight of it, because the ramlak was gone, and their home had returned to them. The ramlak turned into a shriveled up plant that was quickly burned by the fish men and had its ashes buried in a single hole outside the shore of their home. The first mate came up to Lion-O as a few other crewmembers were giving Tygra and Cheetara a special boat for them to travel across the sand sea with.

"Thanks to you, we have our home back." He said to Lion-O, clasping his furry hand with his scaly one.

"I'm sorry about your captain." Lion-O said. "It was his own foolish choice that led him to his sandy grave." The first mate replied.

"We'd better get moving before the sun sets." Tygra said to Lion-O once he had taken his place at the small boat's wheel. "So, what orders do you have for your crew?" Cheetara asked him.

"Set our course for the Book of Omens." Lion-O said. "And what should we do about these two stowaways?" Cheetara pointed her thumb at WilyKat and WilyKit, who gave him cute smiles in order to win him over.

"I said I'm not going to babysit." Lion-O said firmly, "It's a good thing they've proven they can take care of themselves."

"_Yahoo!_" The two kids shouted happily. Lion-O stepped onto the boat and they rode off, away from the sand sea and going to find the Book of Omens.


	7. Chapter 7 Song of the Petalars

Chapter 7 Song of the Petalars

WilyKat circled around his sister with a sly smirk, "Well, you don't have to if you're _scared_." "I'm not scared!" WilyKit snapped at him, she looked away, "It's just…"

"Scaredy cat! Scaredy cat!" WilyKat taunted, pointing at her.

"FINE! I'll do it!" WilyKit shouted, getting him to be quiet. WilyKat stepped back as WilyKit looked down at the froog, a creature that resembled a normal frog in only the way that they were both amphibious. It was a tall creature with big, yellow eyes, six sticky legs, and covered in orange bumps. WilyKit grimaced as she picked it up and, mustering up her courage, put her lips to the creature's mouth. The froog let out a croak as its long tongue shot out, and WilyKit let out a shriek, dropping the creature and quickly wiping her mouth to get rid of the slimy residue left behind.

"I knew it!" WilyKat said with a smile, before singing out, "_WilyKit loves the froog~! WilyKit loves the froog~!_"

"No, I _don't_! You _dared_ me!" WilyKit snapped at her brother. She started to chase after him, and he ran away with a cackle, going past where Kira and Lion-O were resting by the fire they had made. "In the blink of an eye…" Lion-O said quietly, watching them run around.

"Hmm?" Kira looked up at him.

"Nothing." Lion-O said, looking down at the ground, "It's just… I keep thinking about my father." Kira looked at him sympathetically, "I know it sounds dumb, but I… I thought he'd live forever. He gave his life, and for what? We have nothing left."

Kira reached over and put her hand over his, "That's not true, Lion-O. We have the sword, we have each other, but most importantly, we have hope."

"Do we?" Lion-O asked, Kira gave him a soft smile in return.

"Yeah, we do." She said. She laughed when Snarf suddenly jumped up on Lion-O's head, and made him fall back. Lion-O got back up, "Are you kidding me? _Now_?" His smile betrayed the annoyed sound of his voice as he looked up at the little creature resting on his head, "This better be very important, Snarf." Snarf jumped down in Lion-O's lap, and kept trying to pull him to something, but stopped when a loud boom was heard.

Kira jumped up onto a tree branch that over looked the forest they were hiding in, and saw green lights of various technological war machines cutting their way through the trees and bushes. A moment later, she was joined by Lion-O, Tygra, Cheetara, Snarf, WilyKat and Kit.

"It's the entire lizard army." Cheetara said, recognizing their machines from their distance. She looked over at Lion-O, "Just say the word, Lion-O." Lion-O looked down at the sword resting in his gauntlet, and then looked up.

"No. If we stay here, we die." He said. He stood up, getting ready to leave, but Tygra jumped up. "ThunderCats do _not_ retreat!" He growled at him.

"With a situation this hopeless, I'll make an exception." Lion-O retorted. "Hope comes from action! Isn't that what Father taught us?" Tygra growled."And look what happened to him!" Lion-O snapped back. "Now, come on." He jumped down from the branch and the others followed him as he led them away from the lizards. Eventually, they came to a huge briar in a dome-like shape. "They won't be able to follow us in there."

"You're asking us to, what? Hide among the brambles until the lizards go away?" Tygra asked, "This is _not_ how we're going to win this war."

"I'm not asking." Lion-O said, he jumped down and headed to find a way inside the briar.

"You may be king," Tygra said as everyone started jumping down, "But I'm still older than you!"

Lion-O directed them to a small entrance they could go through and went in first, his sword cutting through the brambles to make a pathway for them to go through. As they walked through, they heard a soft, lulling sound.

"What is that?" Cheetara asked, as they seemed to get closer to the sound.

"…It's music." Kira said, hearing a soft, beautiful tune among the sound. When they got close enough to the source, Lion-O looked through a small hole in the thorny briars and saw a large circle of tiny leaf people that were singing a song to a small seed sitting in a basket in the center of the tiny people. Each one was singing a sweet tune, and the seed was quietly listening, content look on its tiny face. Lion-O cut through the branches so he and the others could get through. The small people heard them, and stopped singing; all of them looked up in fear at Lion-O and the others, while they looked stunned to see them. One of the tiny people, who seemed to be pretty young, with a little purple, flowery head and leaves for his body, came crawling through the crowd, and started firing off excited questions.

"What are you? I've never seen people like you before! Are you from here in the briar?" He quickly walked up a briar branch, talking a mile a minute and he pointed to Lion-O's sword, "What's that in your hands? Did you make it?" He climbed up to the top of the branch where he could make solid eye contact with Lion-O, and happened to catch a glimpse of Snarf, "You're not the same as the others, are you some kind of pet?" When Snarf didn't reply, he fired off more questions, "Do you grow from seeds like us? What's that red crystal? How tall are you anyway? Why are you covered with hair? What kind of—" Lion-O cut him off by putting his pinky finger to his tiny mouth. "Okay, slow down." Lion-O said with an amused laugh, "You sound like _me_ when I was your age."

Kira couldn't help but laugh at his words. She could easily imagine a young Lion-O that always asked questions to everyone he met. The little people, seeing that Lion-O and the others meant them no harm, smiled and welcomed them. They asked them to come and sit, and tell them about themselves, if only to satisfy the young one's questions. They all introduced themselves to the people, and the little one looked up at them with wide, awed eyes as one of the people of the village came forward.

"Well, since you've already met young Emerick," He said, introducing the little curious one, "We are the Petalars. We come from a far-off paradise called The Garden. One day, long ago, a great disaster befell our people. A terrible wind, like none recorded in all our history, whipped through our homeland, and swept up the entire Petalar race. Carrying us across the sky, and bringing us here, to Briar Woods, and here we have remained, stranded, for generations."

"Generations?" Tygra repeated, "Is this place so big that you couldn't find your way out in all that time?"

"But, we've got a map!" Emerick said as he and his friend held up a leaf that was their map, "It's very, very old. And it will lead us out of the briar to the Cliff of Winds. If we can find it, we'll be able to ride the winds all the way home." Lion-O reached down and picked up the old leaf, looking over the map.

We'll help you." He said, "And together, we're both gonna find a way out of here, Emerick. I promise." The Petalars all cheered loudly as Emerick jumped up and grabbed onto a piece of Lion-O's hair, swinging back and forth on it. Lion-O only laughed as he started cheering, "Hooray for Lion-O! Hooray for Lion-O!"

Cheetara smiled, "Seems like Emerick's found a hero." "Hmph. He's too young to know better." Tygra said.

They started at a small cliff, a little ways away from where the Petalars had made camp. Cheetara was looking over the map, and then around them. Bringing up the rear of the group, Lion-O and Kira were watching over Emerick, who was using one of the briar needles as a sword.

"I can't recognize a single landmark on this map." Cheetara said, not knowing where they should go. He looked up at Lion-O after a couple swings, "When I grow up, I want to be like you, Lion-O."

"Enjoy your childhood," Lion-O told him, "Trust me; you'll miss it when it's gone."

"But I want to be a hero!" Emerick said, "Can you give me sword lessons?" "Well, first, you can't just wave a weapon around like that." Lion-O said, he took out his own sword to demonstrate, "You need to concentrate. Be more precise."

"Be more per… preh… pre-size." Emerick repeated, having a little trouble pronouncing 'precise' as he copied Lion-O's movements, "Right."

Kira smiled at Emerick, "You can't wait to grow up, can you? I remember when I was your age I couldn't wait to grow up to be like my mom and dad."

She looked up when she heard a loud squawk, and a huge, six-eyed bird came down and snatched Emerick up in its claws. "Help me Lion-O!" Emerick shouted. Lion-O and Kira ran after the bird.

"Emerick! Fight back!" Lion-O shouted up at him. Emerick jabbed at the bird's feet, and it dropped him.

They ran to where Emerick had fallen, looking for the little, purple-headed Petalar. Finally, they spotted him a few feet away, and they both let out a sigh in relief. "Emerick, you scared us half to death!" Kira said with a relieved smile as she and Lion-O ran over to him. When they got closer, they noticed that it wasn't Emerick. He was taller, leaner, and looked a little more mature than he was supposed to be.

"Lion-O! Kira!" He said happily when he saw them, "I thought I'd never see you again." "Who are you?" Lion-O asked him, "Where's Emerick?"

"What are you talking about, Lion-O?" He asked with an amused smile, "_I'm_ Emerick. Don't you recognize your old friend?" "But… Emerick is just a child…" Lion-O said.

"Maybe the last time you saw me." Emerick said, "But, I suppose I was lost in the woods a long time."

"Uh, not _that_ long." Lion-O said. Emerick smiled up at them. "You never gave up trying to find me." He said.

Emerick jumped over a briar branch and started walking back to the main group of Petalars as Cheetara came up to them, holding a small Petalar that was just a child, much younger than Emerick was when they first met him.

"As the ancient Thunderian philosopher said, 'Time is relative'." Cheetara put the child down on the ground, where he instantly began running around, chasing after a low-flying butterfly. "This child was just a baby _hours_ ago." Cheetara said, Lion-O and Kira looked at her in surprise, "The Petalars entire existence seems to pass in the course of a single day. But from _their_ perspective…"

"It's a lifetime." Lion-O finished.

"So… when they said they were here for 'generations'…" Kira began, "They might have only been here for a few days." Cheetara nodded in agreement.

"That's right." She said.

"Are we making _any_ progress?"Kira asked Tygra, getting tired of walking around.

"If the map is meant to lead us into every single thorn bush in the briar, then _yes_! We're doing _great_!" Tygra said sarcastically. Kira rolled her eyes. She looked up at the top of the briar. "Maybe we'd get a better idea of where we're going if we had a bird's eye view." She said.

Cheetara looked at her in confusion, "How are you gonna get up there if you can't fly?"

"I can't fly but I can jump and climb." With that Kira snatched the map out of Tygra's hands. "Hey!" He tried to snatch it back but she jumped up on a branch and started climbing. Kira got to the highest point and looked out. "What do you see?" Tygra shouted up at her, she looked back down at him.

"Uh… I think we should turn left in two miles."She said uncertain. "Not much help, are you?" He asked.

"Shut up!" Kira yelled. "Kira come back down." Cheetara said.

"Oka-Ahhh!" The branch snapped and Kira fell. "Kira!" Lion-O yelled he ran over to where she was falling.

A white flash blinded everyone. Kira felt furry arms grab her. She opened her eyes to see Hachi.

Everyone saw Kira in the arms of a dog. Hachi sat Kira on her feet. "You need to be more careful." Hachi said laughing.

Hachi was a tall Akita dog. He had orange and white fur. His orange hair was in a small ponytail with a tuff of it was partly covering his right eye. He wore an outfit similar to Ren's but instead of blue and black it was white and gray. And instead of the ThunderCat insignia it was a clear gem. His tail was curled like all Akita dogs.

"Thanks Hachi." Kira said hugging the dog god.

He hugged her back, "No problem Kira. Besides, Leo would kill me if I let you fall and get hurt or worse." Hachi said rubbing the back of his head.

"So Hachi, what are you doing here?" Kira asked.

"Well, since I had nothing to do in the kingdom, I thought I'd come and check on you." Hachi said with a smile.

"Well you checked on me. Now what are you going to do?" Kira asked HHHHWRrjwtfiuHachi.

"Well since I'm not needed back at the kingdom right now. I guess I'll stay here and help you guys." Hachi said then he turned to Cheetara, "That is if you don't mind."

"Of course we don't mind. Actually maybe you can help us." Cheetara said.

"Anything you all need help with I'll help." Hachi said shaking her hand.

Kira walked beside Lion-O who's attention was on Emerick as he kept swinging, his movements more precise than when Lion-O had first given him advice on the subject. "You're getting pretty good, Emerick."

"I hope so." Emerick replied with a smile, "I've been practicing since I was a kid." He looked up when something caught his eye, and they saw that it was the bird from earlier, coming down to try and snatch up some more of the Petalars. Emerick ran towards the bird, "My old nemesis… We meet again." The bird landed and he quickly started jabbing at where it landed. Emerick attacked them again and again, until the bird swung out his clawed wing and knocked the needle sword out of Emerick's hands. He started running for it, not noticing how the bird was about to chomp down on him because he wasn't watching his back.

Kira wrapped her whip around the bird's beak and pulled sending the bird back. Lion-O came up and sliced at the bird, hitting its beak once and scaring it off. Emerick saw this and scowled at Lion-O, running up to him.

"What are you doing?" He demanded, "I had him!"

"That was dumb, Emerick!" Lion-O scolded him, "You could have gotten hurt!"

"You're not the boss of me!" Emerick snapped, "So don't tell me what to do!" He ran off to join the other Petalars.

"Teenagers…" Lion-O sighed, shaking his head. Kira laughed. "What?" Lion-O said looking at Kira.

"Oh, nothing." Kira said with an amused grin, walking away. Lion-O ran up to walk beside her.

It was dusk, now, and everyone was exhausted from walking around all day. Hachi was talking to Tygra. Kira sat beside both caught glimpse of one of the older Petalars, who was just a young man when they first met him, fall to the ground, his body disintegrating into tiny leaves that floated off into the air. Lion-O looked at where he had fallen sadly. "What's the point of it all?" Lion-O asked quietly, "Kingdoms rise and fall, lifetimes come and go. Are any of us here long enough to even make a difference?"

"You sound like an old man, talking like that." A voice said. They looked to see one of the adult Petalars was the one who said it. His purple, flowery head having a familiar face to it.

"Emerick?"Lion-O asked surprised.

"With so many great adventures ahead of us," Emerick said, coming up beside them, "We still have a chance to make our marks." Lion-O smiled.

"Yes, my friend." He said, "Many adventures, I hope."

"It can't be…" Emerick breathed, looking ahead of him. He ran up and jumped up high enough to get the map out of Cheetara's hands, and looked it over. "This is it! The gateway to the Cliff of Winds!" He turned to the other Petalars, "Once we get through this pass, we'll be free!" The Petalars cheered loudly and all started running towards the archway.

"Then let's go." Lion-O said to the others, following the Petalars inside. Lion-O let out a cry of pain as he got shot down by something.

"Lion-O!" Cheetara exclaimed, she and Tygra got ready to fight the opponent firing at them, who appeared as a lizard with incredible camouflaging abilities, but were stopped when a second lizard came down from above, knocking them both down. A third lizard shot out a pair of electric weights at WilyKat and WilyKit, tying them together as they fell to the ground. One lizard tried to shoot Kira but instead of hitting her it hit Hachi's golden twin swords. Then both Kira and Hachi fell to the ground tied together by electric weights. Hachi glared at the lizards with golden brown eyes.

The lizards laughed at their catch, one of them putting his big foot to Lion-O's face.

"You were fools to try and outrun your fate." One of the lizards said with a smirk.

"Outrun this!" Emerick shouted as he ran towards the lizard, needle sword at the ready. The lizard easily knocked him away with his tail and he went back to where the other Petalars were.

He was about to crush Lion-O's head under his foot, when they heard battle cries, and the Petalars ran towards the lizards. They jumped up, suddenly turning into some kind of golden dust that resembled pollen. The lizards began to hiss in pain as it filled their eyes and clouded their noses. Seeing the chance, Cheetara got up and knocked one of the lizards out with her staff. Tygra got up and knocked his head against one of them, knocking that one out. Hachi easily snapped the weights freeing him and Kira.

"You can't fight what you can't see!" The camouflaging lizard said, blending in perfectly to the area around him. "We can take care of that!" WilyKat said as he and his sister threw two pieces of fruit at the lizard, the juice of it exposing him.

"I can see you now." Lion-O said, he raised up his sword and knocked the lizard down. Emerick climbed up on his body and pointed his sword towards the gateway. "Charge!" He shouted, all of the Petalars ran towards the gateway, going through it, Cheetara, Tygra, WilyKat, WilyKit, Snarf, Kira, Hachi, and Lion-O following. It was too small for them to walk through, so they had to crawl through. Lion-O was just behind Emerick as they went through.

"You were great out there, Emerick." Lion-O said to him, "You've really grown into quite the young man." "Well, I had a pretty good role model." Emerick replied with a smile. He ran forward, needle sword high, "Now, the Cliff of Winds awaits!" Excited shouts came from the Petalars as they kept running through it. At the end of the tunnel, though, their smiles fell, and it wasn't hard to see why. It was a dead end, with only one of the briar branches curling up from under the ground.

"Uh, there's no cliff here." WilyKat said. WilyKit quickly put her finger in her mouth, then pulled it back out, holding it up in the air, "_Or_ winds," She said, "Just more woods."

"I… I don't understand." Lion-O said, looking around them.

Night had fallen, and it was too dark to travel anywhere in the briar, so the group decided to stay at wherever it was they ended up and get some rest, and figure out where they went wrong.

Hachi and Tygra looked over the map, trying to decipher it.

"Maybe I misread the map." Tygra said.

"There are a lot of places we could have gotten confused at." Hachi said, "Maybe we took a wrong turn somewhere."

"Or maybe there _is_ no Cliff of Winds." Lion-O said from where he was sitting beside Kira, "Maybe the map is a lie."

"Perhaps our forefathers wanted to provide us with hope." Emerick said, "Hope so we'd never stop looking for our way back home." "Is that all hope is, then?" Lion-O asked sorrowfully, "An illusion?"

Emerick gasped, and they all saw that the briar was burning, the fire was spreading slowly, not fast enough to kill them right away, but it was no sudden burst of flames around them. They saw small embers from the fire falling carefully over them.

"Things are about to get a little _more_ hopeless." Tygra said, seeing the fire. "We have to retreat. Again!" Lion-O said in exasperation as he turned and headed for the exit. Emerick stepped out in front of his feet, stopping him.

"No, we must go toward it!" He said. "_Toward_ the flames?" Lion-O asked in shock, "Are you _crazy?_" Emerick stepped closer to where one of the briar branches had curled up.

"Can you feel it, Lion-O?" He asked with a smile, "Do you know what this is?" They watched as the branch slowly uncurled, going up higher and higher until it was completely unfurled, going as high as the briar itself. "The updraft from the fire…" Hachi breathed when he saw it, then he smiled, "It's making wind!" The Petalars all began to stand up and looked at the Cliff of Winds in awe.

"This is why you never give up hope!" Emerick said, he raised his sword up high, "We're going home!" The Petalars all started running towards it, picking up leaves, flowers, and other various things that would help to keep them afloat if they needed it. WilyKat, WilyKit, and Snarf all helped with some of the others, and helping the youngest ones to get going up the branch.

"I think that's everyone."Hachi said, watching as the steady train of Petalars walked up the branch to the top, floating away at the top and riding on the winds.

"Not quite everyone." Lion-O said, pointing to one of the elder Petalars who was sitting still, watching the others leave. His petals were a pale, faded shade of purple, and he was simply being still, doing nothing. Lion-O knelt down and picked the old man up in his hands. "Hurry, there's not much time. Literally." The old man fell onto his back in Lion-O's hands.

"This, I'm afraid, is the end of my journey…" The old man said quietly. He shifted slightly, and a small needle sword fell from his hands. "Emerick?" Lion-O gasped, looking at his now old and withered friend.

"It's all right… old friend." Emerick said. "In the blink of an eye…" Lion-O murmured sadly, knowing Emerick was dying.

"In the end, what matters isn't how long we've lived," Emerick said, "But how fully we've lived." The other Petalars gathered around, singing, "The good we've done, the friends we've made… the love we shared along the way." Lion-O's eyes began to fill with tears at the sight of him, and Kira had tears of her own streaming down her cheeks.

"I'm sorry I couldn't get you to the Garden." Lion-O said. "It's the journey, Lion-O." Emerick said, "Remember that…" He let out a soft sigh, and his body went limp in Lion-O's hands. They watched as his body disintegrated into small, purple leaves that flew up into the air. WilyKit began to cry, and WilyKat comforted her, even though he was crying, too. Kira knelt down beside Lion-O and wrapped her arms around his chest. He hugged her back. After a moment, he stood up, and Kira let go of him as she stood up as well.

"It's time to go home." Lion-O said. They went up on one of the risen, unfurled branches and watched as the Petalars floated up into the air on the wind. The Petalars waved and shouted their goodbyes as they floated up into the air. Kira listened as WilyKit played a melodic tune to say goodbye to the Petalars, and felt her heart swayed by the music. She wiped her eye when a tear began to fill it. Kira was just sat there watching as the new friends they had made flew off to their home.

"So, what now?" Tygra asked Lion-O. "We can find another way out of here." Hachi said.

"Retreat?" Lion-O asked, turning to them, "ThunderCats never retreat. I say we face the lizards," He smiled at them, "And hope for the best." Everyone smiled back at him, glad to see that Lion-O had his hopefulness about the situation again, "We're all leaves passing in the wind, here and then gone, but while we're here," He reached up and grabbed the hilt of his sword, "We live to the fullest!" He drew out his blade, a battle cry sounding, and the crystal in the sword lit up into the sky, making the ThunderCats crest on the smoke from the fire. Using the sword, Lion-O carved a path for them through the briar straight to where the lizards were.

They all ran in, ready to fight. Lion-O cut down every lizard that stood in his way. Tygra used his gun and shot down one soldier after another. Cheetara, using her staff, knocked away five lizards at a time. Kira was using her whip to knock six lizards away. Hachi using his twin blades to wound lizards who tried to sneak up on Kira.

Despite all their work, though, they were all soon surrounded by the lizards, with all of the weapons pointed right at them. They all stood in a circle, back-to-back, as they waited for the lizards to fire off at them.

"There are too many of them." Lion-O said to the others. "Father would have been proud of your bravery, Lion-O." Tygra said.

"A glory I'm honored to share with all of you." Lion-O returned, smiling at the others. "My service to the crown has always been a cherished privilege." Cheetara said.

As one of the lizards' robots fired up its huge gun, a shot came at it from nowhere, causing it to explode. In the distance, a loud engine could be heard as another shot was fired, causing a second robot to explode, a third was fired, and a third one exploded. The lizards began to run away in fear.

"What _is_ that thing?" Cheetara asked. t easily avoided one of the shots coming from the last robot standing. It fired back, and it exploded like the others. The lizards, terrified by this new enemy, ran away from it in fear.

"Hope that thing's on our side!" WilyKit said as the machine came to a stop in front of them. _'A Thundertank.' _Kira thought. The top of it opened, and a huge, panther stepped out. One of the braver lizards who had stayed behind ran towards him, and he easily knocked it away with a pair of nun-chucks. They all looked up at this newcomer in amazement.

"Who are you?" Lion-O asked him.

"Name's Panthro."


	8. Chapter 8 Old Friends

Chapter 8 Old Friends

Everyone watched as Panthro, a huge, muscled, panther ThunderCat, who had plenty of scars from days at war from when he was younger, and some that were possibly a little more recent than that, worked on his Thunder Tank, which seemed to be malfunctioning. His fur was a light shade of charcoal, and his eyes were both red, but one was cloudy with blindness from a scar that went over his eye. Hachi had left right after Panthro showed up.

"I thought he'd be smaller." Lion-O said.

"I thought he'd be less spiky." Cheetara said, talking about the red vest he wore with grey spikes coming out of it. He also wore a pair of matching red, spiky gloves. Tygra saw the slightly awed expression on Lion-O's face and smirked. He nudged him with his elbow.

"Go on, _Lord of the ThunderCats_," He said, "See if your loyal subject needs help fixing his tank. That is, unless you're _scared_."

Lion-O, not going to turn down Tygra's challenge, stepped closer to the tank where Panthro was working, his back facing Lion-O.

"Hey, Panthro." He greeted, trying to sound friendly.

"Go away." Panthro said not turning from working on his tank.

"Oh, _come on_!" Lion-O said, "You're really just going to ignore us forever? What are you so grumpy about anyway?"

"You're standing on my samouflange." Panthro said. Lion-O jumped, looking down at where his feet were and lifting them up.

"Uh… sorry." He said. He cleared his throat, "Look, maybe I can help. I've dabbled in a little tech myself, and so has Kira."

He stood up and looked down at Lion-O. "The Thunder Tank is out of Thundrelium." He said, "Now I've got to risk my hide to get more at the Cloud Peak mine!" He pointed to a far-off mountain in the distance. It was incredibly tall like a huge skyscraper but instead of there being a top to the mountain, it looked as though it had been cut off, leaving a flat surface on the top.

"If you're going after Thundrelium," Lion-O said, "We're coming with you." Panthro looked at him out of the corner of his good eye.

"Let me put this as respectfully as I can… No."

"I _am_ the king now, general." Lion-O said, putting emphasis on Panthro's status. Panthro jumped down from the tank, towering over Lion-O.

"Fine. Slow me down or get in my way, and you're on your own." Panthro turned to the others, "Any questions?"

Tygra raised his hand slightly, "What's a samouflange?"

"It's a special part of the tank. Without it and the tank won't go anywhere." (A/N Maybe? I don't know.) Kira said.

Panthro looked at her, slightly impressed. "You sure know your Thunder Tank parts."

"Thanks. A friend of mine builds Thunder Tanks. When I was a little girl he taught me all of the parts and their functions for the tank. I don't know if he still builds Thunder Tanks since I haven't seen him in ten years." Kira said. "You're a lot like him you know. The first time I saw you I thought you were him for a second."

Panthro nodded and walked away.

Lion-O had WilyKat, WilyKit, and Snarf wait at the tank for them to get back, promising that they'd be back before dark.

"If we don't all die first…" Panthro muttered under his breath. As they walked through the woods to the mountain, Panthro started making a conversation. "You sure have a motley crew on your hands, kid. It's a miracle you survived this long without any adult supervision."

"Well, we've been doing just fine under my command." Lion-O said, a little pissed that Panthro doubted his leadership because of his age.

"If you want to stay alive, you're gonna have to listen to me." Panthro said.

"Lion-O _is_ the king, Panthro." Kira said in his defense, "And he's a pretty damn good leader." Lion-O smiled gratefully at her, and she smiled back.

Panthro laughed, "Could have fooled me. Your father, now _he_ was a leader."

"The king fought to his last breath trying to save Thundera." Cheetara said, "In the end, Grune's betrayal was too much to overcome."

"Grune… We've been inseparable ever since that first day we met on the battlefield." Panthro said, there was something in his voice that made Kira look up at him. A melancholic tone that was tinged with the tiniest bit of anger. Feeling a little bit of pity for the man, she was about to reach out to him but her sixth sense made her see something.

It was a battlefield, and a huge one. It was at Thundera's walls before the city had fallen. The lizards were attacking them, and they were even with the cats at the moment. She could see the bodies of the dead soldiers all around the place, victims of the lizards' flaming catapults. She saw two soldiers carrying a heavy boulder to one of their catapults, ready to fire it, but were blasted back by one of the lizards' and they fell to the ground, their bodies slightly burnt. She saw someone, a much younger Grune, whose brown mane of hair was much smaller than it was now, and he had both of his saber teeth.

"Finally," A voice said, Kira tried to turn her head to see who it was, but found she couldn't, "Another cat who pulls his weight around here." With a start, Kira realized she was seeing this memory from Panthro's point of view. This was his memory of the day he first met Grune on the battlefield. Grune tossed the boulder to him, and he easily caught it, "Name's Panthro."

"Grune." He replied, getting the catapult ready, "I don't know about you, but grunt work wasn't what I had in mind when I enlisted!"

"You've just got to prove yourself." Panthro said, loading the boulder onto the catapult, "Rise through the ranks."

"I don't have the patience for that." Grune said, his eyes gleaming as he looked at something. He released the catapult, and the boulder went flying into Thundera's own wall, right where a group of lizards had been battling King Claudus. The wall fell, taking the lizards with it, but Claudus remained, perfectly fine. He looked down at the two soldiers who had helped him, and they looked back. Grune shouldered his weapon, a round, spiked bludgeoner, and Panthro gave him a thumbs-up.

Now, Panthro was in the palace, and Kira could see one of the clerics pinning a special medal to his chest. She wasn't sure what it was exactly, but she knew it was a reward for his and Grune's bravery in the battle. She listened was the crowd applauded them for their efforts. They looked up at where the king sat on his throne, looking down at them.

"Look at us, Panthro." Grune said quietly to him, "Soon, we'll run this entire kingdom."

Panthro chuckled, "You plan on becoming a lion?"

Grune chuckled as well, "_No_, I plan on becoming king."

Now, Panthro was at a battlefield, but it wasn't Thundera specifically. It might have been a little ways away from it, but in the distance, she could just barely make out the walls of the castle. She watched through his eyes as Panthro took down a lizard with his sword, and when a second one came up, they smashed the blade in half, and he dropped the sword. He pulled out his red-and-blue nun-chucks and started taking out lizards with ease. He and Grune came back to back as they fought.

"If you want to make it to General," Grune said to him, "You'll have to do better than that!"

"I'm eleven lizards ahead of you, captain!" Panthro laughed out. Grune swung his bludgeoner, and took out two lizards with his strike. He laughed in victory.

"Make that _nine_!" He said. Kira watched as Panthro and Grune shared a friendly competition on the battlefield. Is that how it always was for them? Were they just friendly rivals in the heat of battle? They must have been very close, Kira mused.

Now, his memory skipped ahead a few years, to when Panthro and Grune looked the way they did now, war scars and missing tooth and all, and Kira saw two very familiar faces. It was a very young Lion-O and Tygra. They both had wooden swords and were fighting one another. Kira would have cooed in adoration at Lion-O's adorable child-self if she could. He and Tygra were going at it as if they were in a real fight.

"Don't hold back, Tygra!" Grune called to him, "You're stronger, _faster_! Use your advantages!" Tygra did as Grune said, and jumped up high, and brought his sword down on Lion-O. He fell back and dropped his wooden sword, and when he pushed himself up, Tygra pointed the end of his wooden sword at him, showing that he had won. "Excellent. Now continue your training, and remember! What you cannot earn can always be taken!" Tygra looked admirably at Grune as Lion-O stood up. They both looked up at King Claudus as he came to the two of them.

"My two finest warriors," He greeted, they both stood up straight in his presence, neither of them ones to disrespect the king. "I know what you're waiting to hear. I've chosen Lynx-O to be the general of the army." Both Panthro and Grune's jaws dropped.

"Lynx-O has less experience than _either_ of us!" Grune said through gritted teeth.

"That's why I'm keeping you together for a much more important task." Claudus said as he pulled out a scroll that depicted a large group of cats worshiping a book that had a pillar of light shooting out of it. "The Book of Omens, I believe, is _more_ than a legend. And if anyone can find it, it's you two. I hope you understand." Grune growled angrily in his throat, but he said nothing. Panthro stepped forward and bowed to the king.

"Our role is not to question your highness." He said.

Panthro used a special scope to check out the entrance of the mine, seeing two armed lizards guarding it. Beside him was Lion-O and Kira, and behind them were Tygra and Cheetara.

"That's the access tunnel we need to get to." He put down the scope and turned to the others, "Doesn't look too heavily guarded."

"I say we take them now." Lion-O said.

"We'll wait for darkness." Panthro said, he and the others started to crawl away into a hiding place to wait. Lion-O scowled, staying at the place where he could see the access tunnel.

Who's in charge here?" He growled to himself. Lion-O jumped down and ran over to the entrance.

"Lion-O!" She tried to reach out and stop him, but he got away too quickly. Kira sighed, shaking her head, "Oh, brother…" She got up and went after him. Lion-O easily took down the two lizards standing guard. Then Kira and Lion-O were surrounded by lizards.

"Drop your weapons!" He shouted at them, they didn't budge, "Please?"

"Kill him!" The lizard in charge shouted. Before they even pulled the triggers on their guns, Panthro had pulled out his nun-chucks, and had easily begun taking out two lizards every second. After a moment, all the lizards were down on the ground, unconscious. Lion-O looked up at Panthro in awe of his battle skills as he put his weapon away.

"What is _wrong_ with you_?_!" Panthro demanded.

"Me?" Lion-O asked, "_I_ gave an order! _You_ ignored it!" The two cats glared at each other. Fearing things might get worse; Cheetara, Tygra, and Kira went over to Lion-O's side.

"He is the king now, Panthro." Cheetara said.

"So that means I've got to listen to any idiotic order he gives me?" Panthro snapped, still glaring at Lion-O.

"I guess all the stories of your undying loyalty were exaggerated." Lion-O replied, glaring right back at him.

"You'll have my loyalty when you show me you can do more with that sword than just carry it around!" Panthro said he started walking into the tunnel; he looked over his shoulder at everyone but Lion-O, "Come on, let's find the Thundrelium and get out of here."

Everyone did as he ordered and followed him inside. Lion-O hesitated by followed Panthro.

They passed a large amount of mining equipment that wasn't being used while they snuck through the tunnel. They went through a tunnel, and stopped at the entrance of it, and looked down at the mining that was being done by the lizards. Carts of magenta minerals were being sent through a system they had set up.

"Thundrelium…" Lion-O murmured.

"Enough to power a thousand Thunder Tanks for a thousand years." Panthro said. Panthro glared at the cat that walked past the tunnel they were hiding in, "Grune…"They watched as Grune went toward a full cart of the magenta-colored power source and picked up a small one, inspecting it with a smile. Panthro moved away from the entrance and looked back at everyone else, "We move on _my_ lead, got it?" No one refused.

They were hiding in a tunnel that the lizards were using to get the Thundrelium in and out of the mines. One lizard came in, riding on a motorized cart out of the tunnel. When he was deep enough in the tunnel that the darkness hid him from the other lizards, Cheetara jumped up and threw him down. The lizards outside the tunnel heard the other lizard's cry of pain and they hissed angrily, their weapons pointed at the tunnel's entrance as they went inside slowly. Tygra, who was invisible, made himself visible again and knocked the two of them out, throwing one against the wall, and throwing the other one out of the tunnel. Two more lizards came in, and Lion-O raised up his sword, cutting through their guns, making them explode. The sound of the explosion caught the attention of everyone outside the tunnel, including Grune, and they made their presence known.

"ThunderCats!" He exclaimed, seeing them, "Oh, you fools! You brought the sword right to me! And now you'll never make it out of here alive."

"They will." Panthro said from behind him. Grune turned around looking shocked to see Panthro, and Panthro glared at him, "I just can't say the same for you."

Grune sighed tiredly, "You've always been hard to kill, Panthro."

"I can be stubborn when it comes to dying." Panthro said.

"This isn't going to go well, is it?" Cheetara asked.

"Nope." Tygra replied.

"Now, let's see…" Panthro growled, "When was the last time I saw you? Oh, I remember, after dragging us through a sandstorm, you went into that pyramid, and released Mumm-Ra from where he was imprisoned! And when I tried to stop you, you fought me until I couldn't and left me for dead!" He gritted his teeth angrily at the end, "We sure have some great memories together! You betrayed me, Grune! You betrayed your brothers! All those deaths, and you're still not the king!" Panthro's body was shaking with rage.

"Don't lecture me, Panthro." Grune said, "If it's revenge you seek, then come take it."

"With pleasure!" Panthro growled, pulling out his nun-chucks. He stopped when the ground began to shake.

"What is that?" Cheetara shouted over the rumblings.

"The only thing you can trust!" Grune shouted as something shot out of the ground, showing that it was a robot with a giant drill on its head and its arm were basically just large drills, "A machine!" He looked up at the robot, "Destroy them, Driller!" The machine, doing as it commanded, went after the others as Grune began to run, "Until next time, Panthro!"

"Grune!" Panthro snarled, going after him. Driller blocked his path, and when Panthro tried to knock him out of the way with his nun-chucks, Driller easily knocked them away and threw Panthro back before he started drilling multiple holes all through the mine around them. After a second, he stopped, and there was a silence. They all looked around waiting for the Driller to pop up somewhere. The rumbling sound of him drilling through the ground began again, and the floor behind Panthro began to shake. Driller came out of the ground behind him. Lion-O pulled out his sword and ran at Driller.

"ThunderCats! _Ho_!" The Eye of Thundera quickly began to glow. The Eye of Thundera shot out small bolts of lightning and Panthro looked at Lion-O with wide eyes as he wielded the sword's power. The Driller paid no attention to it as he turned his arms into a giant buzz saw and came at Lion-O. Lion-O easily blocked the strike and knocked the robot away. The machine quickly recovered from it, he ran back at Lion-O, using his drilling head as a weapon this time and Lion-O blocked it with the stone in the sword. No matter how hard Driller tried to break through it, he couldn't.

"Now _that's_ what I call impressive!" Panthro said, watching the battle. Lion-O pushed the robot back, jumped up and cut off the top of the drill on his head. The robot fell to the ground white sparks showed that Driller started to malfunction and shut down. Suddenly, the mine began to rumble again, but this was much worse, because the mine was beginning to collapse on itself. They all looked up to see rocks fall and crush some of the machines.

"The Driller weakened the mine!" Tygra shouted, and everyone began to run away. They started running through the tunnel that they came in through, but Cheetara stopped, taking a glance back at the mine.

"We have to go now!" Lion-O shouted, noticing she had stopped. Cheetara, using her speed, ran to one of the carts and picked up a small piece of Thundrelium.

"Not without this stuff." She said, she ran back to the others and they ran out of the tunnel, just as the mine began destroy the inside of the mountain. They ran out of the tunnel's entrance and the mine began to crumble. When it stopped, they looked back, seeing the remnant dust from the destroyed rocks inside coming up from around the mountain's peak.

"Well, that will slow down Mumm-Ra's army for a while." Lion-O said as he looked at the access tunnel, which was now blocked by the mine's rocks.

"I guess your father's sword wound up in the right hands after all." Panthro said, Lion-O looked back at him in surprise. "I served him proudly, and you can expect the same." Lion-O, turned to him with a grin.

"So, you think when we get the Thunder Tank fixed, I could drive it?" He asked. Panthro frowned.

"Not a chance!" He smirked, "My king."


End file.
